Unecessary Information
by kingofthefayz77
Summary: So what went on at Coates before the Fayz anyway? This is the way I think it would have happened. Drake, Caine, and Diana being as evil and awesome as ever!
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first fanfic ever so please R&R**

**EDIT: 2014**

**So, hi, here I am, almost at the end of this super long journey. (Just a fair warning for the entire fic, I have outrageously long Authors Notes, so just be warned, I'm trying to cut back). I started this in 2011 and my writing has grown SO much since then. I'm not going to revise this fic for reasons you can read about in the Chapter 26 A/N, but I just want to say, STICK WITH THIS FIC. The writing improves as you read, I promise, and there really is a plot going later on :)**

**Chapter 1**

"**Fiveminutes."** Drake Merwin was sure of himself; sure he would beat Ladris at her own game.

"Ten," Diana smirked at him. "You can't do it in five minutes."

Drake growled under his breath. What a witch. He could hardly stand not attacking her right now with the knife he always kept in his pocket. And then her pretty face would be all covered in crimson... But he snapped out of his daydreaming, he had to focus right now.

"I can do it in five," he said confidently.

Diana shook her head at him, "There is no way you can do it in five, my bet's ten. And if I win...if I win, you have to cook me dinner tonight. And dress up like a waiter."

Drake flinched, cook for Ladris? Yeah right. That would be torture. So he would have to think of something worse for his side of the bet.

"If I win," he started, and then a perfect idea came to him. "You have to cook yourself dinner, and then you have to eat it. With Caine. Alone. Just a romantic dinner for two."

Diana narrowed her eyes and Drake grinned, knowing this would be the perfect punishment.

"Drake Merwin?" The psychiatrist's door opened and the new therapist peeked out tentatively.

Drake got up and went into the door, grinning and mouthing 'Five Minutes' as he went.

Diana rolled her eyes; no way could he do it in five minutes. She sat alone in the hard backed chair, watching the clock intently.

One minute had passed, then two and three. She reached into her bag and pulled out her lip gloss, spreading it on as the clock showed that now four minutes had passed. The second hand grew closer and closer to the five minute mark, and Diana held her breath as the final seconds ticked down...and then she grinned. He had lost; it was taking him more than five minutes. In fact, it wasn't until one minute later when the therapist ran out of the room, screaming, with Drake following close behind, walking slowly with a twisted smile on his face.

Diana strolled up to him, "I won."

His grin immediately disappeared. "No way."

"Yeah, it took you six minutes, and you said it would only take you five."

Drake took a step back, seeming to want to size up the situation. "Well, that doesn't mean you win! You said it would take me ten minutes, and it only took me six!"

Diana thought hard about what she should do here. Drake was right, not that she would ever tell him that, but she wouldn't just let him win completely. There was no way she was being forced into a dinner with Caine without at least putting up a fight.

Suddenly she heard the voices of the principal and an extremely frightened therapist coming down the hall.

"Come on, unless you want to get us both detention," she told him, motioning to go the other way. "What did you do to the therapist anyway?"

Drake grinned, and Diana mentally shuddered when she saw the look on his face, "Let's just say he will never think of paperclips, peanut butter, and kittens in the same way again."

When they were to a safer spot, Diana finally said, "You still have to cook me dinner, because I didn't completely lose the bet."

Drake smiled, "Fine, but you still have to eat with Caine."

Diana turned red with anger, "Fine."

He gave her a Cheshire Cat-like grin, "Fine."

She turned and stalked off, and was halfway down the hall when she heard Drake call, "Oh, and Ladris?"

"What?" she spat, tired of talking with him.

"You have to tell Caine. I'm sure he'd love you asking him to dinner."

**Diana** **needed** to think. She needed to plot, more specifically. How would she ask Caine to dinner with her? She knew if she asked him then he would totally take it the wrong way, and he would think she actually wanted to have a romantic dinner with him. As if.

She sat down on her bed, deep in thought, when her annoying roommate, Taylor, came into the room happily, probably relishing in the latest piece of gossip she had heard. Suddenly, the perfect way to ask Caine became clear in Diana's mind; Taylor. That girl couldn't resist spreading gossip around. It would be perfect. She could make Caine feel awkward and end up asking her, while still accomplishing her half of the bet.

She made her face downcast, and nervously rung her fingers as Taylor sat down on her bed.

"Taylor?" she asked, making her voice higher pitched and more nervous sounding than usual. "If I told you something, would you promise not to tell anyone?"

Taylor's eyes immediately lit up, and she went and sat down next to Diana on her bed, surprised that Diana was actually talking to her, and excited for a new piece of gossip. "Of...of course Diana," she said. "What is it?"

"Well," Diana hesitated, and leaned in to Taylor like she was telling her deepest secret. "You know Caine Soren?"

**Cainedidn't** consider himself to be a gossip girl. He never really gossiped much, although he knew he got gossiped about. And he wasn't a girl, so he didn't really fit that part of the description either. But even though he didn't know much gossip, he wasn't completely out of the loop, and the entire school knew the gossip right now; that Diana wanted to ask him out to dinner tonight.

He was in math class right now, the only class they had together, and he wondered if she would ask him now, or if she would be too scared. No, she wouldn't be scared. Diana was never scared. But he was scared. What would he say?

He had always been fearless, never nervous, never scared. But she was the only one who completely destroyed that, broke him down and shattered the pieces. When he was with her, it was like he couldn't think, almost couldn't breathe. But what if the rumors were wrong? And he ending up looking like a fool?

There was a murmur in class then, and Caine snapped out of his thoughts to see her strolling into the classroom as the bell rang, her hair swishing from side to side as she walked. He loved how her hair swished.

She came and took her seat beside him, and he watched her to see any sign of nervousness, and got nothing but a glare in response.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she asked, more cruel than usual. She must have been having a bad day.

Caine realized his mouth had dropped open and quickly closed it, only to open it again to say something and close it once more, forgetting what he was going to say.

Diana rolled her eyes, "Nice fish out of water look, it really suits you."

Caine blushed and looked down at his paper, pretending to work on some problems. He waited for the rest of class for her to say something to him, for her to ask him something, maybe even glance in his direction, but for the entire class she barely even looked at him. Should he ask her if the rumors were true? What would she say?

He glanced at the clock, the bell was about to ring, and he wouldn't see Diana again until dinner. And then it would be too late.

He said it before he had time to chicken out, "Ummm, Diana, did you hear the rumors going around?"

She turned and gave him an innocent look, "What rumors?"

He knew this had been a bad idea. "Oh, nothing, just that you were going to ask me..." he trailed off, mumbling.

"Ask you what?"

"Ask me to dinner. With you. Alone. I mean, well, with the two of us, we wouldn't be alone alone, like just one person, that would be awkward of course. Hard to have a romantic dinner for two with one person. Not that it would be romantic! Of course, it would just be as friends. So yeah. Just like, to umm eat dinner. Yeah, tonight," he realized that he was rambling and quickly stopped talking.

She looked at him in confusion, "Oh, I hadn't heard that rumor."

"Oh." He was officially out of things to say.

"Yeah, I guess I was just planning on eating in the Cafeteria tonight." She sighed and suddenly it came to Caine.

"Well, you know, we could always eat dinner in my dorm. You know, just the two of us. We could sneak up food. I mean, if you want to." He held his breath.

Diana's eyes lit up, "That sounds like fun! And I know Drake has been longing to cook in the kitchen, so that would work out perfect!"

Drake longing to cook for Diana? Something was wrong here, but Caine didn't care. In fact, he felt on top of the world!

"So tonight? At five?" she said, getting up from her seat as the bell rang.

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds perfect," he said, his voice giddy from happiness.

She gave him a 1,000 watt smile and walked away, leaving him feeling as happy as he would ever be. Diana smiled to herself as she entered the hall, he didn't have to know that she hadn't wanted to go to dinner with him in the first place, or that she had been forced to ask him, or make him ask her. That was unnecessary information.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, this chapter's long, but it all kind of went together, and I want next chapter to be Caine and Diana's dinner together. :P I'm looking forward to writing that scene. Also I am traveling for the holidays so I might not be able to post as much (I have Chapters 3 &4 but I'm not sure if I will have internet access) Thank you so much for reviewing! You don't know how good it makes me feel to get reviews, seriously, even if you just say, "It was good." That would make my day! **

**Special thanks to _Mia_for being my first ever review, and thanks to _hungryinthedark4pickles_for giving me the idea about Computer Jack/Video Game Jake.**

**Chapter 2**

**Drake****had**been sent to Coates because he had shot a kid. The kid hadn't died, though if Drake had just been able to take one more shot, make a more careful aim, then he would have. It hadn't even been with a good gun, just with one of his dad's old pistols he had found.

Holden.

That had been the kid's name, Holden. _What__parent__would__name__their__kid__Holden?_Drake wondered, and then thought to himself, _the__same__parents__that__would__name__their__kid__Diana._

But Diana was a witch, and he partly hated her just because he couldn't hurt her, but Holden, Holden was just annoying. Everyday he would come over to Drake's house with his Power Ranger dolls (although he would insist they were action figures) and want to "play" with Drake. Drake did not "play" with anyone, let alone some little creep that decided to show up on his doorstep every morning looking like a complete dork with his big round glasses on his pudgy face. So one day Drake just shot him, and landed himself a one way ticket to Coates Academy, the place where everyone was a bully, but some were stronger than others.

Drake was finally at the top of the food chain at Coates, even the teachers feared him now. He had beaten, punched, and broken more than several bones on his way to the top, but he had gotten there. He would have liked to say it was without the help of Caine, but if he was being truthful (which Drake rarely was) he would have to say that it would have been harder to get to the position he was in now without Caine's help.

By the time Drake had met Caine, Ladris had already infatuated him with what ever charm he saw in her, so he had to work harder to earn his way into Caine's posse, but eventually the pair had become a trio.

Now they ruled the school, using each other when necessary, and usually creating a strong sense of fear in the other students. Drake used to be the strong one, used to be the one that beat people up for Caine, but now that Caine had discovered his "powers" Drake had begun to notice Caine hadn't been using him as much.

Powers, Drake scoffed, Caine with his "levitation" and Diana being able to read other peoples "powers". Seriously! What kind of power was "being able to read other peoples powers" anyway? Weapons were power. Guns were power. Drake was power. Not what ever silly thing Caine though he had.

Drake got along well enough with Caine although they had their fights occasionally. Even though he knew Caine thought he was superior to him, it was just Diana he hated. And now he had to cook her dinner. He would have to break into the kitchens later, and even though he knew he wouldn't get caught, it wasn't like he wanted to risk his butt trying to get her food.

The final bell rang, and Drake picked up his things and entered into the sea of students in the hallway. Then an idea hit him, now would be the perfect time to break in and cook the food! No one would be watching the kitchens; everyone would be too caught up in the rush of students heading towards their dorms.

He slipped, ducked, and darted his way between students, heading for the kitchens. He finally arrived at the large metal doors, and tried the handle. It was locked. Luckily this was no problem for Drake, as he kept a knife on him at all times to look at when he was bored, so he quickly picked the lock and let himself inside.

The interior of the Coates Academy kitchen was large and roomy, with a row of stoves along one wall, and a long row of ovens along the other. To his right was a large pantry, and to his left a door that led to the area where they served the food.

Drake walked over into the pantry and stared at the boxes upon boxes of food that lay on the shelves. He finally decided on spaghetti, that should be easy enough to cook right? He could just throw the pasta in some water and then pour some tomato sauce he had found on top.

He threw a pot on the stove with some water in it, and dumped the pasta in, turning the heat on high. Then he got bored and dumped the tomato sauce in also, and watched as the thick, red, paste slowly seeped its way into the water. It almost looked like blood as it sat in the pot, the dark rusty red reminding Drake of the time he had drawn a smiley face on Holden's dog, with a knife of course. Then Drake poked around in the pantry to find some other things to toss in the spaghetti; pickles, garlic, prunes, Goldfish. Hey, Diana never had said that the food needed to be good! By now the pasta smelled strangely burnt, and when Drake poked it with a spoon he found it was all clumped together. Oh, well.

He fished the clumped up pasta out of the pot and cut it in half, then put the pasta on plates. He took his gloopy sauce he had made and poured it over top. Bon appétit.

This dinner was going to be so boring. Drake could tell already, Diana would get all pissy with Caine, and Caine would just nod along and make googoo eyes the entire time. In fact, he was just about to walk out the door when he saw a rat trap over by the door with the words: CAUTION RAT POISONING WILL KILL HUMANS!

Drake crossed to the trap and shook out the poison over one of the plates. She was a rat after all; it wasn't his fault that she acted like a witch all the time. Plus, dinner was about to get a lot more interesting.

**Caine****didn****'****t**see Drake as he was walking out into the hall from his final class. Well, he thought he saw him once, ducking and dashing between students, but with everyone wearing the same uniforms it was hard to tell who was who.

But Caine had bigger things to worry about than what ever Drake was up to, right now he had to meet Diana at the library. They met there almost everyday, and Caine would try and practice his power, try and control it, make it stronger. Caine also enjoyed the one on one time with Diana, but that was beside the point. The library was usually empty at this time of day, or at any time of day for that matter. Coates was a school for bullies, not a school for nerds that actually did their homework.

Caine was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't see the girl standing in front of him until he bumped right into her.

He stumbled a step backwards, and once he saw who it was said, "Oh, hey Penny."

Penny was a couple years younger than Caine, but she was pretty smart and was in some of his classes. She was petite and cute in a little girl sort of was. Although her tiny, pixy-like features suggested otherwise though, she always gave out a strange sense of fear.

She blushed, "Hi, Caine. Um, wow, this is…wow. Umm, I was wondering if you had the Algebra homework for today. Because I wasn't paying attention during...umm...class and yeah, I didn't get it so I was wondering if you had it..."

"Yeah, just come by my room later, I'll give it to you."

"Really?" Penny squealed at such a high pitch Caine almost wanted to cover his ears.

"Yeah, it's just math homework."

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Penny said and scampered off, as Caine finally approached the library door and stepped inside.

"That was strange," he said to himself, but he still needed to be nice to Penny, who knew if she was a freak also. And if she was he would have to charm her, make her want to come into his posse. Because to become powerful, you needed an army. And an army of freaks was exactly what he needed.

"**I****wonder**if there are others." Caine said, and Diana glanced up just long enough from her book to give him a questioning look.

"Other what's?" she asked, returning her attention to her book.

"Other freaks, other mutants, other people with powers." He snapped her book shut with the flick of his hand, "Could you pay attention for once!"

Diana rolled her eyes; he was so needy sometimes, "Oh, Fearless Leader, you now have my full and undivided attention."

Caine ignored the sarcasm, "Good. Because I want to try and lift people today."

She looked at him with doubtful eyes, "Okay...and who are you going to lift?"

"You," he said confidently, and she began to back away. No way was she going to get lifted by someone who was still discovering their powers.

But suddenly Diana's feet weren't on the ground anymore. She wanted to scream several choice words that had just popped into her head at him, but decided against it, knowing it would draw attention to the fact that she was now floating five feet in the air.

"Caine," she hissed through her teeth. "Put. Me. Down."

He didn't answer, just flicking his dark hair out of his eyes and raising his wrist a bit more. As Diana struggled, the ground floated farther and farther away from her feet. Her head was rising above the bookshelves now, and she could see the librarian chatting with a nerdy looking kid with blonde hair at the front desk. She recognized him…what has his name again? Xbox John? No. T.V. Joe? No. Video Game Jake? It was something like that. She continued to look around, and saw a pair of steel grey eyes flash a few shelves over. As she watched, the eyes disappeared, coming towards Caine and her. There was a loud bang, and as Caine's head snapped to the left, she felt herself falling through the air as he lost concentration.

Drake stood beside Caine, laughing at Diana, who was sitting disheveled on the ground. He reached down, picking up the large encyclopedia that he had dropped on the floor, grinning like a maniac the whole time, his teeth glinting strangely in the dim library light.

Diana stood up slowly, shaking, running a hand through her tangled mane of hair. She crossed to Drake, "You messed up my hair." Her words came in short bursts, anger overriding her other emotions, and all rational thoughts.

In a flash her hands were behind her back, her neck pulled back by her hair, pinned to his shoulder, a switchblade digging into her throat. She raised her hand up towards her face, trying to defend herself. Another instant passed, and Drake was pulled off of her by some invisible force, the switchblade cutting deep into the back of her wrist as it got swiped away. Suddenly, Drake was being pushed up against a shelf by Caine, being held in place by an invisible hand.

Diana's hand absentmindedly went up to her wrist, and when she drew her fingers away they were coated in red. Drake looked up at her, his eyes drawn to the crimson covering her fingers, grinning at her expression. Caine pushed him back up against the shelf, drawing the attention back to himself.

"Why did you do that?" he yelled, and Diana flinched, there was no way the librarian wasn't going to notice them now. "You don't touch her okay? You don't touch her!"

His fist connected with Drake's jaw, but being held in place with Caine's power, he was unable to even flinch. "Don't ever even think about doing that again," he warned, releasing Drake to where he fell onto the floor with a fat lip. Drake scrambled to his feet, glaring at the pair of them, and muttering a few swear words under his breath. He started to walk off, dabbing at his lip with his fingers, staring at the blood with a creepy sort of fascination.

"He'll get over it. He always comes back," Caine seemed sure of himself as he turned back to Diana, a sort of wild adrenaline rush dancing in his eyes. "Now at least I know I can lift people."

_**Strange****things** are happening at CA. I can't tell exactly what is going on, but there seems to be something…different about these kids. It could be my eyes just tricking me. But I'm scared for S, what if he is-_

The sound of her office door opening caught Connie Temple's attention, and she quickly shut her laptop, startling when she saw who was walking through her door. Caine. Her son. But he didn't know of course, Connie shook her head slightly, he would never find out. She plastered on a smile, wondering why she felt so intimidated by him, it wasn't like he had superhuman powers.

"What can I do for you?" she asked, trying to be polite and not show how much her hands were shaking.

Caine stepped aside a bit, allowing a second person to step into the doorway with him. "Actually, it's not for me."

A girl with long, tan, legs stood beside him, her skirt rolled up several inches higher than allowed, dark brown hair hanging like a sheet straight down to her elbows. She had bottomless midnight eyes that stared straight into your soul, unburying your deepest secrets.

Diana Ladris, the name came to Nurse Temple. She saw her with Caine often; the pair practically ruled the school.

Diana was nudged forward by Caine, and, after giving Caine a death glare, showed Connie her wrist. A long gash was visible, flecks of dried blood surrounding it like some form of sadistic confetti. Connie sat her down in a chair, looking closer at the inch long gash, and growing slightly suspicious.

"How did you get this?" she asked.

Diana's answer was immediate, "I fell in my room and cut it on the corner of the table. I said I was fine, but he made me come anyway." She made an irritated motion towards Caine. He grinned at her, and Diana gave him the middle finger, which Connie pretended not to see.

Nurse Temple grabbed a disinfecting wipe and walked back to Diana, dabbing at her cut. "Well, it's quite long, it might need stitches. Are you sure you did this by falling? It almost looks like," Connie titled her head a little, looking at her wrist closer, "like someone cut you with something."

Diana winced as Connie finished cleaning her wound. "I don't need stitches. I'm fine."

But Nurse Temple wasn't about to change the subject, "Did someone cut you with a knife?"

Diana wrenched her hand out of Connie's grasp, and looked her straight in the eyes, "I fell in my room. I already told you." But Connie knew that she wasn't looking her in the eyes as a way of showing sincerity, it was a threat. Go up against Diana, or let her get away with lying.

Connie glanced down into her lap for a moment, then got up and grabbed a bandage to wrap around Diana's hand. She didn't say another word. When she was finished, Diana gave a curt, "Thanks for nothing," and proceeded to start walking back to the dorms.

"Come back tomorrow so I can change it," Connie called after her, but she was already long gone. She turned to Caine, "You'll make sure she comes back?"

Caine winked at her, "Will do." Then he strolled down the hallway after Diana, his mother watching him go, and he never looked back.

"Those two could commit murder and get away with it," she muttered under her breath, then shook her head. She was tired, why was she thinking like this? They were just kids, after all, they weren't planning world domination, they were just kids.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in like a week, I've been busy with traveling and everything...:) Here's Chapter 3, it's not my favorite, but a lot of stuff happens, so hopefully you will like it! Please R&R! Even if you just say, "I read your story." I will be SO SO SO SO SO happy! Thanks to Mia for being first commenter (again!) and for the awesome review, you made me so happy! I might not be able to post for a couple days, because of traveling and holidays, but I will definitely have one up by Wednesday. Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas! (And other holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas) :)

**Chapter 3**

She hadn't touched the spaghetti yet. It was bothering Drake, because he was bored out of his mind. It was 7:00 on a Friday night; he should be out terrorizing 6th graders, or poking the golden eyeball of a bunny out, or seeing if battery acid really did eat away all your skin. He should be doing something productive.

Instead, he found himself sitting in the room he shared with Caine, watching him eat his spaghetti rapidly, making puppy dog eyes at Diana, while she just sat there, her lump of spaghetti untouched, rolling her eyes every so often for dramatic effect. No one was having a good time, except for maybe Caine, who seemed to still think that this had been Diana's idea all along, and he couldn't stop grinning.

"Did you hear that Jasmine is pregnant?" This seemed to be Caine's attempt at conversation.

"Seriously?" Drake heard Diana scoff. "At fifteen? What a whore."

Drake turned away from the pair of them, looking into the mirror in front of him and doing his signature shark-like grin. He wasn't vain, but he needed to make sure it was perfect. He wanted his face to be the one to haunt your nightmares for weeks after you saw it. Any good psychopath had to have a decent creepy smile; it was just the way it was. People had to take one look at you and want to turn the other way. You had to radiate dominance and fear just from your look. It was part of the fun, watching them just shake and tremble as you approached them, their pupils dilated in fear, nervousness so prominent on them you could almost smell it. You had to live for the moment when they would plead, "Please, stop! Please! Please, stop! I'm begging you!" That was when you cut them for the last time, savoring their screams like they were the last drops of ice cream in a bowl. Tracing the knife down their arm, watching the blood pool over them like a sinister crimson blanket, their-

A sudden screech from Diana pulled Drake out of his thoughts and he whipped around. Had she eaten the spaghetti?

No, he gritted his teeth in anger and disappointment; she had just caught Caine looking down her shirt.

"You perv!" she screamed, buttoning her shirt up to her neck. "I try and be civil with you for one night, and you spoil it by staring at my boobs!"

Caine stood up to match Diana, reaching out to try and grab her hand as she angrily turned towards the door. His mouth was open, clearly trying to figure out what to say and coming up with nothing.

Diana yanked her hand away, piercing Caine with a deathly glare, and strutted towards the door, slamming it on her way out.

"That went well," Drake commented dryly.

Caine turned towards Drake, eyes dark with anger, and Drake suddenly couldn't move his arms or legs, he was being held by an invisible hand. Caine strode towards him, his face close to Drake's. Drake squirmed uncomfortably; he didn't like not having the upper hand.

"My therapist says I have anger management problems," Caine snarled. "He says I'm too impulsive. And you know, I don't really don't feel very happy right now. Do you really want to see how bad my anger management problems are, Drake?"

Drake stared into his eyes, not wanting to give in, but not really having that much of a choice. Suddenly a voice behind both of them made them jump.

"Whoa. Caine I thought…I thought it was you and Diana but…I guess I was wrong."

Caine released Drake and they both spun around, blushing as they realized how close they had been standing. Drake glanced over to where the table was still set up for two, a rose resting in a glass in the middle of the table.

"It's not what you think," Caine and Drake both said at the same time to Penny, who was standing in front of them, smirking and blushing.

"It's okay," Penny said, her eyes becoming slightly unfocused as Caine walked towards her.

"You came for the homework?" Caine was really close to Penny, so close he was breathing her exhalation.

Drake wondered slightly what he was doing. Flirting with her? Drake didn't really get girls very much; he knew their screams were higher most of the time though. But…Caine liked Diana didn't he? Drake shook his head, girls were too confusing. They talked too much for his liking. And they were just too…good all the time. Good grades, good social status, good at sports. Coates, in Drake's opinion, wasn't a school for being "good" at homework, it was somewhere you went if you weren't very good at following the rules, but you were good at not getting caught when you broke them.

Penny didn'tstalk Caine Soren per se. It was more like an obsession. Or a major crush. No, definitely more like an obsession.

It wasn't her fault that he was incredibly good looking, or that she had actually gotten permission go to his room! And now he was standing inches away from her, so close she could feel his breath on her face. Her train of thoughts, everything she had prepared and drilled herself to say, suddenly was completely gone.

She opened her mouth, what was the last question he had asked? Something about homework? He looked at her with a confused expression on his face, obviously waiting for her to answer his question.

The algebra homework! That's what she had come for!

"Umm, yeah, I uh, need the algebra homework," she muttered, feeling a blush spreading across her face like a warm, wet, towel.

"Sure, just let me go grab it." Caine turned back towards the dorm, and Penny followed him a little farther into the room. She stepped over by the table, fingering the blood red rose and feeling its velvety surface. Her gaze traveled across the table to where a plate of spaghetti sat completely untouched.

"Ooh, spaghetti!" she said, reaching for the fork and taking a bite of the noodles. She looked up just in time to see Drake Merwin's shark grin staring back at her before her stomach twisted sharply and she collapsed to the ground.

"What's going on with her?" Caine had never seen this happen before. He had been working on charming Penny, and all of a sudden she was on the ground, writhing around like she was having a seizure or something.

Drake stood next to him, an almost creepy look of fascination on his face. "I have to say, I would rather it have been Ladris, but this chick works too," he said, seemingly to himself.

Caine turned to Drake, confused. "What did you do?"

"Poisoned her food." Drake grinned at him, taunting him.

Caine clenched his fists, trying not to lose his temper. He looked to where Penny was still on the ground, her eyes rolling back in her head, her muscles twitching every so often. He weighed his options, deciding that he should probably try and save her; a dead body in his dorm room probably wouldn't help his reputation very much.

He would have to deal with Drake later. "Come on," he said, "I'm sure Nurse Temple is just dying to see me again."

They had dropped the girl off to a confused Nurse Temple ; she hadn't seemed to believe their story this time, but she said the girl would live. Drake didn't care; it had just been worth it to see her on the ground, having spasms. That had made Drake's Friday night a little better.

Now though, he had a different mission he needed to accomplish.

Being down by the main office had given Drake an idea. He had always wanted to know what was in Ladris' psych file; plus it wouldn't hurt to check out Caine's as well. He prowled down the ghostly silent halls, past the nurse's office, and towards the copy room, where all the school files were kept. Caine had already gone back to the room, so Drake didn't have to worry about him butting into his business.

He approached the dark door, his hand on the knob, his face pressed against the cool glass. Yes, this is where he wanted to go; now he just needed to avoid getting caught. Luckily, Drake was quite good at not getting caught.

He reached into his pocket, his fingers finding a paperclip he had straightened out a little while ago. He pulled it out, sliding it into the lock until he heard it click.

Drake turned the door knob, watching around him as he silently pushed the door open. He crept inside, stealthy as a cat, slinking towards the file cabinet.

He had his fingers on the cool metal surface, about to open it, when an icy, authoritative, tone made him whip around.

"Mr. Merwin. Please come to the main office, we have a few questions for you."

Diana couldn't believe she was doing this for Caine. It's for both of us, she convinced herself, I'm doing this for both of us.

She was standing in the shadows outside Nurse Temple 's office, although this time it wasn't because she was hurt. She had been sent by Caine, to see if Penny had the power or not. Diana hadn't completely forgiven Caine for what had happened earlier that night, but it wasn't like it hadn't happened before. Plus, Caine was like a lonely puppy, when she ignored him he just followed her around, flashing his big, brown eyes at her until she gave him what he wanted. He was really pathetic sometimes.

She peered through the window in the office, waiting for when Nurse Temple would leave and she could go in and see Penny. She played absentmindedly with the bandage on her hand. She hadn't decided yet whether she minded Caine being so protective or not. She had known from the beginning she would need a strong male bodyguard of sorts, but Caine and her...she felt like they had something more. Sometimes, when he would try and hold her hand-

The turning of a doorknob made Diana jump, she snapped out of her thoughts. She shrank further back into the shadows as Nurse Temple opened the door, saying, "I'm just using the bathroom, I'll be right back."

She walked across the hall, and Diana seized the opportunity to duck out of her hiding spot and run into the office, where Penny was lying with her eyes closed on the bed.

Diana approached her, swiftly taking Penny's hand in her own. Penny's eyes snapped open.

"Hey, Penny," Diana drawled, bored, but almost done. She was a three bar.

Penny looked at Diana, a slow, almost sadistic smile spreading across her face.

"Hey bit-" but she didn't get to finish because suddenly there was a large, salivating, roaring beast leaping at Diana.

The deadly silent hallways suddenly echoed with high pitched screams.

There wasn't just one sadist in Coates tonight.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Ok, ok, I'm finally back. Sorry it took me so long to write a new chapter. January and the beginning of this month was exams, and no offense, but school work comes before writing :( sadly, that is just life. So this isn't my favorite chapter, but I really like the next one, so I'm looking forward to that (turns out Drake and Diana had a little...history...well, you'll see next chapter). Tell me what you think, thanks for all the great comments, I read them all and really take to heart what you write and try and improve my writing based on what you say! R&R! Thanks a ton for reading!**

"First of all, Mr. Merwin, why were you out of your dorm at this hour at night?"

Drake sat back in his chair in the Headmistresses office, sighing loudly, and saying nothing.

The Headmistress leaned across the table, her eyes glinting in her anger. "Answer the question."

Drake just smiled at her, almost angelically, playing with a pen he had found on the table.

"I will ask you one more time, Mr. Merwin; why were you out of your dorm this late?"

"You know," Drake finally said, "school here has taught me one good thing. I plead the 5th. I don't have to answer any of your questions, lady."

The Headmistress made an annoyed noise and sat back down, ruffling in her drawers and producing a vanilla colored folder. She opened it up, pretending to read over the pages and pages of notes in it, frowning as though this had been the first time she had seen it.

"Wow, you are a bad boy, Mr. Merwin," she clucked her tongue.

Drake rolled his eyes. "For one, stop calling me Mr. Merwin, it's Drake. And secondly don't act like this is the first time you've seen my file. Of course I'm a bad kid, why else would I be here?" He continued playing with the pen, adding "Duh" under his breath.

She pretended not to hear him. "I don't enjoy your attitude, Mr. Merw-...Drake."

He glared at her, "You aren't supposed to enjoy it."

"Look," she took a breath, "we need to lay down some rules here. You can't be out of bed after 10 o clock. You can't..." she looked down at his file, "beat up 6th graders because they are 'midgets'. And you certainly cannot threaten to kill your therapist with peanut butter, paperclips, and kittens! Honestly, Drake, did you seriously do that?"

He didn't say anything, the look on his face said it all.

"I'll let you off easy this time, detention every Friday at 5 o clock. Don't make there be a next time, or I won't be as nice."

Drake rolled his eyes before standing up and heading towards the door. "What are you gonna do if there is a next time? Expel me? Send me to Coates?" He laughed to himself, "Too late."

Caine was pouting. Well, not pouting precisely, but he was pretty put out. Tonight was supposed to be the start of his and Diana's 'relationship'. He used the word 'relationship' carefully. Diana and him had been friends for a while now, but they had been stuck in that phase where that's all they were, friends. Caine knew he would have to make his move on her soon, or his chance would be up. His chance to be her...boyfriend.

"I'm Diana's boyfriend. Diana is my girlfriend," he tried the words out, finding he liked how they sounded together.

Sadly, after tonight it seemed like it might be a lot harder to take their relationship to the next level after all.

He hadn't been staring down her shirt per se...it was more just a quick glance. He couldn't really help himself, it was her own fault for leaning over with her shirt unbuttoned like that. It wasn't like that had been his intent...it had just happened.

Caine couldn't decide whether or not he minded the way Diana flaunted herself all the time. She oozed confidence, so much so that you would never in a million years think of crossing her. The problem was that Caine was attracted to her, and he knew other boys wanted her also. She was the cobra, and they were all trying to tame her. If you weren't careful, you could get injected with poison, but if you charmed her the right way...

Caine prided himself in charming people, he knew he was good at it. He was good-looking, and was confident, and was good at public-speaking. It was kept him entertained, charming people, because it gave him a challenge. How fast could he have them wrapped around his little finger? Diana, though, was his biggest challenge yet. One he hadn't yet completely finished yet either. Yet how would he make up for the commotion he had caused tonight?

He fingered a Hershey Bar, Bug had bought it for him earlier tonight. Wait! Maybe that was it, he could make up with her by giving her chocolate. All girls love chocolate, right? They loved getting gifts, like flowers and chocolate. Wasn't that right?

He picked up a pen, writing;

D~

I'm sorry about tonight, I messed up. Just give me another shot, okay? I want to do this right, and not have it be awkward between us. Meet me tomorrow at our usual spot?

C

He sat back, reading it to himself. That sounded pretty romantic to him, but he wouldn't know, he wasn't really used to this sort of stuff. Caine stood up, heading towards the door, wondering what Diana would think when she saw this sitting outside her door in the morning.

As Drake stepped out of the Headmistresses office he saw Diana run rapidly into the hallway.

"What's up with you?" he asked, smirking. "You look like you've seen a ghost. It's kinda funny."

She didn't look in the mood for talking. "Go to hell."

"Am I annoying you?" She didn't answer. "Good, now it's really funny."

She stalked off towards the dorms, ignoring him. Drake followed behind her, not willing to let an opportunity to annoy her pass him by.

"Soooo, what were you doing out of the dorms at this hour? Having an affair with the science teacher? Ha, funny thing is, I can kinda see that. You walking all in like 'Mr. Miller, I know it's late, but I wanted some hands on practice for that lab-"

"Shut up!" Diana yelled, turning back towards him. "I was doing something for Caine, if you must know."

She turned the corner to her dorm room, and Drake heard her screech something along the lines of, "He thinks he can bribe me with chocolate?"

She stomped back around the corner, throwing something at Drake. "Here, take this, you would probably want it more than me."

He picked up the object. A chocolate bar? What the heck? But chocolate was chocolate, so he took it with him as he strolled back to his dorm. This Friday night sure had turned out a lot better than expected.

Once Brianna was sure she was alone, she decided to test it.

She tied up her new running shoes, Nike brand, with a bright green swoosh down the side. She pulled her wild mane of hair back, attempting to contain it with a ponytail holder. Crouching down, she got into three-point position, the way a runner would before a sprint. The night air was cool around her as she pressed the button on her stopwatch.

She was off! Her feet thundered beneath her, moving separately from the rest of her body. The wind tore at her face with vigor, its icy hands like claws tore at her cheeks. The adrenaline that came with this sort of speed ripped through her body.

She had lapped the school track twice before she clicked the stopwatch. Her mouth formed a round 'o' as she looked at the time. She had done it all in just 3 seconds.

The crickets in the woods cheered her on in harmony as she did a victory dance.

"Yeah! Go Brianna! You're the best!" she yelled, punching her fists in the air. This was so cool, she could beat everyone now at track meets. But maybe she shouldn't show anyone, she wouldn't want anyone to think there was something wrong with her.

Belatedly she started back towards the school, not noticing the slight ripple in the air as Bug passed her by. Little did she know, he had seen it all, and was sure Caine would be very interested to know about the girl who could run a mile in under 6 seconds.


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm back for real this time! I'm really excited to be writing this fanfic, I have some really…interesting plans for it :) Anyway, if you have any ideas of some fun or trouble our friends at CA could get into, leave a review and I will try and incorporate it! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I read every one and you guys are just too nice! It's really awesome to be able to share how much I love Gone and MG's writing with all y'all!**

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><p>"Hey."<p>

Diana rolled her eyes, not giving Caine the time of day as he slid into a seat next to her in science.

"You know, Di, I was thinking-"

"Di? Did you seriously just call me Di?"

Caine swallowed, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. "Well, I just thought that since you call me Fearless Leader, I could have a nickname for you too…" his voice trailed off as she studied her face.

Diana closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She didn't have the patience for Caine today; he was giving her a headache.

"And you thought Di was a good nickname."

"You don't like it, I guess?"

It was funny how Caine could be so charismatic, but when it came to her he acted like a bumbling idiot.

"Yes, I love it. It's great."

"Really?"

She opened one eye to squint at him. "Are you seriously that desensitized to my sarcasm?"

"Oh."

There was a pause before Caine regained his swagger. "You know, I invited Penny to sit with us at lunch." He grinned a little so Diana knew he was just doing this to piss her off.

"You better be joking."

"I'm not. I think it's good to start socializing with other freaks. It'll bond us together."

"Penny pisses me off."

"But we need to do this."

Diana sighed, falling silent and playing with her eraser. She knew Caine would go on his power trip with the freaks regardless of what she said.

Mr. Seklar- the science teacher- went around, passing back the test they had taken last class. He waddled his chubby body through the aisles, slapping packets down on kid's desks.

When he gave Diana hers she frowned at the big, red F that glared back at her. Mr. Seklar gave her a disapproving toad-eyed gaze.

Diana sat back in her seat, fuming. She had studied hard for that test and he had made it unfairly hard.

"What'd you get?" She heard Caine ask her.

She ignored him, still red in the face.

The bell rang and Diana gathered her things into her bag, preparing to sit through a torrent of a lunch with Penny. She was following Caine's back out the door when she heard, "Miss Ladris, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Diana swung back inside, going over to the teacher's desk and trying to look somewhat composed.

"Yes, Mr. Seklar?"

"Miss Ladris, I'm going to be quite frank- you are failing my class after that last test of yours. You seem like a smart girl so I don't want you to have to repeat this year of science."

"So you'll let me retake the test?" she asked hopefully, her fingers playing with the hem of her too-short skirt.

"No." His double chins wobbled as he shook his head back and forth. "I have a no retake policy. I just want you to get your head in the game."

Diana felt her insides boil. A sharp remark was ready on her lips, but she was suddenly struck with a better idea for revenge.

"Alright, thank you." She struggled to keep her composure as she left his room and rushed into the girl's bathroom.

Once inside she mussed up her hair and uniform, trying to look disheveled. Pinching her cheeks turned them a rosy pink and splashing water on her face made it damp, like she had been crying. Now all she needed were the real waterworks. Luckily, she had always been good at fake crying.

It was time to talk to Caine.

After all, she was Diana Ladris.

No one messed with her.

Caine was listening to Penny chatter away in his ear when Diana came up. She looked…strange. Usually she was always impeccable, with not a hair out of place. Today though, something was wrong.

She sat down beside him silently her fingers playing with her dark hair. There was no snarky remark. No sarcastic comment. This wasn't Diana.

He didn't say anything to her during lunch- calling her out in a public place would only earn him a verbal lashing. She walked closer to him than she usually did as they left the cafeteria, her shoulder brushing up against his. Caine waited until no one else was paying attention before he grabbed Diana's elbow, steering her gently into an abandoned hallway.

Once there, he turned so he could look her in the face. He was surprised to see her midnight eyes glittering with unshed tears. There was no doubt in his mind now; something was wrong.

"What's going on?" Caine felt his heart thump against his chest as he took a chance and slid his hand into hers. She didn't protest, surprisingly, intertwining her fingers. Caine was suddenly glad for the shadows in the hallway- they hid his flushed face.

Diana sniffed, wiping her nose with her free hand. "It's science."

"What happened? Did you fail the test?"

"Yeah. But that isn't it." She leaned her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her.

"What is it then? You can tell me." He tentatively brushed a piece of her hair away from her eyes. She sniffed again, her tears staining Caine's navy blazer an even deeper blue. Caine guiltily thought that he would like Diana to do badly in more of her classes if she would act like this.

"Mr. Seklar." Her voice wobbled.

Caine frowned. "What about him?"

She shrunk even further into his arms. In a voice barely louder than a whisper, she said, "He called me back into the classroom, I-I thought he was going to talk about my test. But then…but then he…he…" she trailed off and didn't finish.

He turned her so that they were face to face, his hands on her shoulders. "What did he do?"

"He…" Tears ran down her cheeks as she tugged at her partially unbuttoned shirt, her eyes begging Caine to understand.

Caine thought he did, but he didn't want to believe it. "What did he do to you, Diana?" he growled.

Diana bit her lip, looking at the ground as she whispered, "He touched me."

Blood pounded in Caine's head as his teeth clenched together. He had never felt so much anger, so much hatred for someone before. _No one_ should have done that to Diana. Not while he was around.

"Don't worry," Caine whispered into Diana's hair as he drew her near to him. Her shoulders shook against his chest. "I've got you now, I won't let anything happen to you. I'll make it better, I swear."

Brianna was in the Main Foyer when it happened.

She had seen Caine storm into the foyer from the academic hallways, obviously ticked off about something. She had watched him, contemplating what Bug had told her. He had said Caine wanted to talk to her. He had said that Caine was like her, that Bug himself was like her as well. Freaks.

She hadn't been sure she was ready to pledge her allegiance to Caine yet. Her super-speed was something she would have rather kept to herself. But then Mr. Seklar had appeared at the top of the stairs.

She hadn't seen it happen, exactly; her eyes had been on Caine. But she had seen him pause and then turn and glare at the teacher. She had seen the almost imperceptible flick of his wrist. She had seen Mr. Seklar fly down the stairs as if pushed by an invisible hand.

Everyone had crowded around Mr. Seklar- everyone had assumed it was an accident. Brianna, however, knew differently.

Caine had power, immense power, and not going to talk to him probably wasn't a good idea. She wanted to stay on his good side.

Caine winked at her when he saw her watching him. To any passerby it would have looked harmless.

Brianna saw it for what it really was; a warning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, so this chapter sucks, but it's kinda like an inbetween chapter really, to get ready for the action about to happen :) Basically this fanfic IS (believe it or not) going to have a plot to it, but it's going to have Caina fluff every so often and just a lot of Drake awesomeness as well. Today inspiration hit me and I have a great idea for a more plotty/serious fic I'm going to write after this, but this is more like my "Let's have fun with the characters" fic (although, as I mentioned above, it will have a plot, I promise). **

**Sorry for the extra long A/N, but if I get enough reviews then I will try and post another chapter this weekend. Thanks for reading!**

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><p>"Do you mind if I sit here?"<p>

Diana glanced up into Brianna's pimply, freckled face. The girl smiled down at her, oblivious to Diana's obvious annoyance at her. Diana looked back to her fingers, which were clacking out a choppy, irritated rhythm against the fake wood of the cafeteria table.

"Yes, of course I mind-" she started to say, until she felt an invisible hand tugging her wrist. She gave Caine her Death Glare, trying to pull her hand out of his powers grasp. She knew what he was trying to tell her.

She turned back to Brianna, gritting her teeth. "Sure. Sit here."

Brianna was still oblivious. "Okay, thanks!" she chattered, sliding in next to Diana.

Caine immediately started talking to her and Diana tuned them out, turning her attention to the rest of the table instead. Caine's "freak army" was up to a whopping total of seven people as of now, and that was including Caine and herself. Caine was going to have to be a little more proactive with his recruiting skills if he wanted to gain any sort of power in Coates.

Not that he needed any more power than he already had.

She had known the day she had gotten to Coates that Caine was something different. He wasn't like your average reject that the academy had to offer. Was he messed up? Sure. Was he evil? In his own way, yes. But was he a lunatic? Was he past the point of saving, past the brink of revival? No. Not the way Drake was, or the way Penny was headed to be.

Diana saw likely the sanest person on the grounds of Coates, and that was including the teachers as well. And yet he wasn't perfect, far from it actually. Caine was twisted, dark inside. She knew that, and it was okay because deep down, she was dark inside as well.

But they were both sane. They both still had light in them, even if it was buried deep. Okay, buried really really really deep. Caine had light in him; she knew he did. Or at least, she hoped he did. She really hoped he did.

"So, what do you have to bring to the table?" Caine leaned across the table, giving Brianna a reassuring smile.

She grinned back at him, "Do you think being able to run a mile in under three seconds qualifies as 'bringing something to a table'?"

Caine sat back, trying to contain his smile. "Now we're getting somewhere." This, this power could be incredibly useful. "Tell me, how long have you known about this power?"

Brianna shrugged, "I don't know, like maybe a week?"

"Perfect."

"Perfect?"

"I have a theory, see, that our powers will develop over time. When mine, for instance, started out, I could barely lift a penny. Now, however-" Caine smirked at her, making sure she was watching. Then, without taking his eyes off Brianna, flicked his wrist sending some kids lunch soaring over to their table from across the lunchroom. Caine smiled, hearing the kid's cry of alarm as a lunch tray settled in front of Brianna.

Her eyes lit up and she clapped. "Wow! That's amazing!"

Even Diana glanced up, shaken out of her angsty daydreams to grant Caine an eye roll and the mutter, "Extremely discreet, Caine."

Caine let out a shaky breath, rubbing a hand over his head. He hadn't been actually sure going in that he was going to be able to pull that off.

Brianna was practically bouncing up and down in her seat now. Caine allowed himself a smile. He was reeling Brianna in, and he almost had her.

"If that's what _your_ powers are like now, I can't imagine what _mine _will develop into!"

"Look," Caine glanced at Diana- what he was about to say could be potentially dangerous. "I found this place on the grounds that no one knows about, I was going to meet there tomorrow afternoon and maybe we could practice a little bit? Like you, me, Penny, Bug…"

Her eyes widened, "Sure! I would love that! Where is it?"

"The old fountain. It's right outside the Rec Room door."

Diana stood up suddenly and Caine knew he had made her angry. The fountain was kind of _their_ place, he supposed. It was where they had met, where he had showed her his powers. Diana probably didn't think of it like that though, she probably was just mad that he had given away a good spot she liked to hang out or something. She probably didn't think of it the way he thought of it.

But as he watched her stomp out of the cafeteria he found doubt creeping in. How pissed off was she? What if she really had liked that for that fountain to be kept secret?

"Okay, I'll be there!" Brianna chirped, snapping Caine back to the present.

The bell rang, signaling that it was time to get back to class and they both grabbed their trays, walking to the trashcans together. Caine tried to hide his grin of triumph as he waved goodbye to Brianna. He had her all right. He had her hook, line, and sinker.

Drake had skipped lunch because, frankly, he had better things to do with his life. Plus, he had heard that there were new kids.

Now new kids were fun to Drake, they were interesting. See, by now, most people at Coates avoided him, stayed out of his way. And although he could just beat up somebody for fun when he wanted to and get somebody to do whatever he wanted for him, it kinda had lost its grandeur. It was fun to be feared, but it was even more fun to start to fear. To watch it build in his enemies eyes until they cracked.

Once they cracked though, the fun started to fade.

But fresh meat, fresh meat was a different story. Maybe they had heard rumors, stories told at no louder than a whisper in the hallways about the infamous boy named Drake. Maybe they were already scared and whimpering, their every sense on alert for when Drake was on the prowl.

Drake liked them like that, scared and whimpering.

Now he walked the hallways, going nowhere in particular and seeing practically no one since it was lunchtime. He flexed his arms above his head, his fingers fidgeting. He was itching for a fight. If Caine was here he would have tried to restrain him, told him not to start anything now, not when he was trying to recruit freaks. Luckily, Caine wasn't there.

He heard voices coming from the foyer so he headed there, staying in the shadows of the hallway while he watched the scene play out.

There were four kids, one girl and three boys, standing amid a pile of luggage. Drake recognized two of the boys but couldn't think of names to go with the faces. The other boy and girl must have been the new kids.

To his surprise, the new boy was yelling at the two Coates cronies. Drake strained, trying to make out what he was saying.

"…take her luggage up to her room for her. And you'll take mine too, if you know what's good for you!"

One of the cronies shook his head, "No way, man, I'll show you around, but I ain't hauling you and your sisters luggage up that big-ass staircase. It just isn't happening."

"Oh, yeah?" In a flash, the blond-haired new kid punched the smart-mouthed crony, knocking him to the ground. After a series of quick blows the new kid stood up, unscathed. The crony lay motionless on the ground.

The new kid pulled a knife out of his pocket, pointing it at the still-conscious crony. "You'll take the luggage now, won't you? Or do you wanna see what happens when I do that" he motioned to the boy on the ground, "to you, except with a knife."

"I'll take it, I'll take it!" The crony quickly picked up the luggage dragging it up the staircase as the new boy and his sister followed behind.

Drake felt a cold smile start to spread across his face. So this kid thought that because he snuck a knife into Coates Academy that he was some sort of psychopath. Hah! Drake would show him psychopath.

Things were about to get interesting indeed.


	7. Chapter 7

**As promised, here is another chapter! Hope you guys are having an awesome weekend and thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

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><p>Lucas followed the kid carrying his luggage up the stairs and towards his room.<p>

"Come on, Ariel! You're so slow!" he said, turning around to yell at his dark-haired little sister.

She glanced at him with her usual perplexed gaze, not saying anything but trotting up to match his pace.

"Now listen." Lucas looked ahead to make sure the thug carrying their baggage were out of earshot. "Here, you don't act different, okay? You act like a normal little girl and you don't show anyone your power, alright?"

Ariel nodded up at him. Her head dropped back down to her hands, which were twining and untwining themselves. She frowned a bit.

"What?" This worried Lucas. "What did you see?"

"Nothing." Ariel finally spoke. "My hands were just itching."

Lucas paused for a moment, trying to determine if she was lying. Finally he just decided to accept what she said as true. "Alright, fine. Listen, if anyone gives you trouble, or start bugging you, you come tell me, okay? I'll take care of it." Lucas smiled as he imagined whipping some of the so-called "Coates bullies" into shape. He was certain he could beat each one of them in a fight. Hell, he bet he could probably take ten of them on singlehandedly and still win.

"Drop my stuff off here," he told the kid with the bags, "and then follow my sister to her dorm and drop her bags off for her."

The kid just nodded silently, depositing Lucas' bags off outside the door. For some reason this pissed Lucas off. Why couldn't this kid have some fire or some spunk in him to sass Lucas back, like the kid he had beaten up downstairs? He was itching for a fight. Well, itching to beat someone up, more like.

He turned back to Ariel, "Am I going to fight someone soon?"

Ariel looked back down at her hands, which were twisting together again. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Yeah, you'll have a fight with someone. I can see it."

Lucas was hoping for a fight until English.

He was sitting next to some strange kid who was called Paint and who had an almost unnoticeable orange ring of color on his face. He was completely prepared for another nap during class when a girl walked in.

Now, this in and of itself was hardly uncommon, there were loads of girls at Coates. This girl, however, was different. She was dark, beautiful, and practically screamed untouchable.

Lucas turned to Paint, "Who's that?"

Paint laughed, "Don't waste your time. She doesn't give a damn to anyone besides Caine."

Lucas frowned. "You still haven't told me her name."

"Diana Ladris. Now shut up, she's coming over here and if she hears us talking about her, we're dead meat."

Diana dropped into the seat next to Lucas, her long hair brushing his arm.

"Hey."

Lucas looked up, surprised to see Diana talking to him.

Paint seemed equally surprised as he stuttered, "Oh, um, hey, Diana."

Diana's dark eyes flicked past Lucas to Paint. She smirked, "Funny that you act like we're on a first name basis when I have no clue who you are."

Paint blushed, the orange on his face darkening as he looked at his desk.

"New kid, right?" Diana's eyes met him, a challenge.

"Yeah." Lucas stared back at her. She may intimidate Paint, but she didn't intimidate him.

"What are you in for? Killing your neighbors puppy?" Diana asked dryly.

"Raping a girl at my cousin's ranch."

If Diana had a reaction, she didn't show it. "Oh, so you think you're a bad boy, right?"

Lucas shrugged, determined to act nonchalant. "I guess."

Diana laughed. Like she legit laughed out loud at him. Lucas gritted his teeth. His hatred and affection was growing for her by the millisecond.

"Don't worry about corrupting me with your badness, I've seen far worse," she promised him.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. Sit with me at lunch and I'll tell you all about it."

Paint was choking on his own spit in shock at this point.

"Sure. I bet you aren't as corrupted as you think you are."

Diana raised an eyebrow. "You'd be surprised. Trust me, you'd be surprised."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing; if she did this to get under my skin, she's failing," Caine said as he angrily stabbed at peas on his lunch tray.

"Yeah, sure. She's not getting under your skin at all," Drake told him dryly watching the pea massacre continue on Caine's tray.

"She's not. We're both our own people and we can sit where ever at lunch. Of course," Caine's face darkened, "I thought Diana preferred sitting over here, but, she can choose to sit where ever she wants. I don't care."

"Okay." Drake glanced across the lunchroom to where Diana was practically sitting in the new boys lap. She saw him watching her and proceeded to flip him off. Drake returned the favor.

"Diana says hi," he told Caine.

"What?" Caine wasn't paying attention, as Bug had just come up behind them.

"I've found a new freak," Bug told Caine.

"Who?"

"The new boy's sister. I don't know what she can do, but I overheard them talking about it."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"I knew that slimeball was hiding something," Caine said.

Drake squinted at him, "You've never even met him, how did you know he was hiding something?"

"Can you shut up?" Caine said, his face flushing. "Thank you, Bug. I'll ask her to come to the Rec Room with us tomorrow."

The bell rang, signaling that the students needed to return to class and Drake followed Caine out of the lunchroom.

"I want that new kid out of the picture," Caine told him.

Drake grinned, now they were getting somewhere. "When you say out of the picture…"

"Yes, I mean out of the picture," Caine said. "Go do your creepy sadist thing."

Drake let that slide as he ducked through the crowd; he had a bully to find.

It was Caine, however, that found him first. Holding hands with Diana and walking back to class.

Caine's hands clenched into fists. Keep it together, he chanted to himself.

"Diana," he called and she turned around. "Can I talk to you?"

She glanced up at the new boy. "I'll call you later. I'm Room 214, by the way."

He gave her a smile that made Caine want to rip his head off his shoulders.

"What?" Diana asked Caine, her eyes cold.

"I, uh, I was wondering if you were coming to tomorrow night to the Rec Room."

"No."

"No?"

"I've got plans."

Caine felt his breath catch in his throat, "With who?"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "It's none of your business."

"I need you."

She stopped frowning at him, her eyes softening, "You need me?"

_Yeah,_ Caine thought, _you're the one who keeps me sane. _ He didn't have enough courage to say that to her face though.

"Yeah, to read the freaks."

Diana went back to frowning. "Well. If that's all I'm there for, I'm not coming." She turned on her heel, walking back down the hallway.

"Diana!" Caine called after her. "Diana, wait!"

She didn't turn back around.

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><p><em>cainefanatic6-<em> **I'm glad you like it...because I do too and there is most likely going to be more coming in this story!**

_dianasoren- _**You are too nice! Haha, and you made me laugh, I'm really flattered you like it.**

_Fan 22.222222222-_ **Here is your response, even though you already know I love you! AND NO MORE COOKIES!**

**Thanks again to all who reviewed! 3333**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry, I usually try to post on the weekends, but I was busy with end of year testing and finals (basically stuff that will be going on ALL THROUGH MAY) so I don't know how regularly I will be able to add new chapters! This is really like my relief from studying, so sorry if the writing sucks, I'm so tired right now...Anyway, thanks to all who reviewed, I'm too tired to write responses but I read everyone and I just want to say THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! And that's all :) R&R!**

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><p>"Mr. Merwin, are you going to decide to participate at all today?"<p>

Drake shrugged, flicking his blonde hair out of his eyes unconsciously. He didn't want to be here. Well, frankly, he never wanted to be in therapy, but he didn't have much of choice in that matter. Why did he need to talk to a therapist anyways? Nothing was going to change who he was. They were stupid if they thought getting Drake to spill his guts to some random doctor was going to change him.

"What do you want me to say, Doc?"

The newest therapist, Mr. Smithen, looked a little surprised and a tiny smile crossed his face as Drake finally said something. "Whatever you would like to say, Drake."

Drake smiled- this would be fun. "Well. Okay, then. Firstly, I really don't like your glasses."

"Oh." Mr. Smithen blinked, not seeming to know how to take this. "I'm sorry that you don't like them."

"Do you mind?" Drake reached out for them.

Mr. Smithen took them off his slightly sweaty face hesitantly, not wanting to give them to Drake, but not wanting to pass up this current breakthrough. He handed them over to Drake, who grabbed them greedily, studying them closely.

What could he do with these?

"So, Drake," Mr. Smithen obviously thought that with Drake distracted with the glasses, he could ask the more personal questions. "Have you spoken to your folks recently?"

Drake's fingers tightened over the glasses frame. "No. Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering what your relationship was with them."

Drake didn't answer, just tried to pop the lenses out of the frame.

"What about your mother? Do you like her?"

Drake's throat tightened. "Yeah. Yeah she was okay to live with. I guess."

Smithen sat back in his cushioned chair. "This is the first time you've ever shown a little bit of an emotion rather than hate for someone before."

"Yeah. Yeah. I didn't hate her." _Stopstopstopstop you never tell the therapists anything, _his mind was screaming. He had to turn the doctor off of him now, before the psych saw the tears glistening in his eyes at the thought of his poor mother. "Yeah. She was kinda pretty, covered in blood."

Smithen's eyes squinted. "Covered in blood."

"Yeah." Drake was making stuff up now. "I cut her up."

"Cut her? With what?"

"A pair of broken glasses lenses." Drake kept his eyes on the glasses. "You see, if you sharpen the lens shards with a knife, they get super sharp. Almost like a razor, you know?" He glanced up to where Mr. Smithen was eyeing the glasses in his eyes warily now. "Then I cut her. It was fun."

"Alright, that's enough now, Mr. Merwin."

"I saved her arteries for last, so she would be alive longer."

"Drake, that's enough for today."

"I had to saw at the arteries a little though. They didn't just burst like I thought they would-"

Mr. Smithen was up out of his seat now, watching as Drake popped the lenses out of the frames. "Drake, I need to go now. I think it's time you left."

"But, Doc, I just started talking." Drake smiled at him, walking closer with the lens in his hands.

Mr. Smithen opened the door, pushing Drake outside. "Come talk to me later, alright? Bye. See you later."

The door was slammed in Drake's face. He smiled, calling, "You forgot your glasses!" The door didn't open.

Drake shrugged, slipping the lens into his pocket and walking out into the hallway.

"So…you don't think this is going too fast?"

They were in the darkness of an abandoned English classroom, holding hands and giggling as they had just avoided being caught by a teacher for being out too late.

Diana raised an eyebrow, studying him. "Really? Of all the traits to describe you, cautious doesn't seem like one of them."

Lucas rolled his eyes, pulling her closer to him. "I'm not cautious. I just wanted you make sure_ you_ were okay with it."

Diana laughed. "Please. You don't have to make sure I'm okay with anything. I've done things that you couldn't even imagine in your dizziest daydreams."

"Have you now?" Lucas' lips were on hers and Diana thought about how this really was going too fast. She hadn't meant for it to get this far in the first place, really. The whole reason she had even started talking to Lucas was to get to Caine. She didn't love Lucas, just wanted him to shove up Caine's ass and get him to admit he needed her.

Lucas rushed too much. His kisses were hard against her lips. He was hungry. She could tell. She needed to get out of here. The trick would be to get away without Lucas striking out. She just needed to slip away.

Once he had pulled back and they were both gasping, Diana tried leading him towards the door. "Come on. Don't you have class to go to tomorrow?" she smirked at him.

He pulled back on her hand. "Mmm. I can skip."

"Unfortunately, I can't." Diana tried to pull her hand away, looking at the door. What would she give right now to be with Caine at his stupid freak show? At least she wouldn't be trapped in a dark room with a creepy boy.

"Leaving so soon?" Lucas walked next to her to the door. "Why don't you stay a little longer? I make a great study partner, I promise." He tried to grab her waist, but she slapped his hand away.

He looked hurt, his green eyes flashed. "What was that for?"

"I want to go to bed," she said, straining again for the door.

He didn't release her. "I can arrange for that."

She gave him a glare. "Not like that, you big moron. I'm not that into you."

Diana had hoped that rejecting him like this would cause him to drop her like a hot rock once he realized she wouldn't play his games. He did the opposite however, trapping her slender body in his strong arms.

"Really? 'Cuz I'm really into you." His lips were on her neck, his fingers sliding up her shirt…

She struggled, crying out and trying to slap him.

He turned so that she was pressed up against the wall, his body weight crushing her so that she couldn't move. "Don't go away," he whispered in her ear. "I'm not quite finished with you yet."

"Let me go!" she screamed, hoping someone would hear her as his hands started to pull down her skirt.

"Don't say another word," he threatened and suddenly there was the silver flash of a knife against her throat.

Diana glared at him, refusing to show how much she was quivering with fear on the inside.

"What the hell?" A third voice, a familiar one entered the room.

Lucas swung around, the knife still against Diana's throat. "Don't you say a word!" he bellowed. "Say anything at all and it's over for her!"

Drake sat down on an overturned desk and shrugged. "Go ahead. I really don't care."

This seemed to confuse Lucas a little bit. "You better not say anything to any teachers!" His grip on Diana loosened and she broke free, running towards the door. Lucas glanced towards her, but now his attention was focused on Drake. Diana fought the urge to kick him the balls- she had a feeling by the look in Drake's eyes that he was going to do that for her.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm not a tattletale." Drake was slowly picking his way towards Lucas, who was standing his ground, the knife now in front of him. "However, I am a sadist who has a certain liking for a persons blood. Say, have you ever seen what it looks like when you cut someone open with a piece of sharpened glasses lens?"

Diana inched out into the hallway, escaping towards the dorms just as she heard Lucas say, "No, what do you mean…."

Drake caught up with her on the stairwells to the dorm rooms. "Well. That was fun. I needed a release."

"Better be careful," Diana told him. "Caine'll start putting you on a leash again if you beat another person up."

Drake shrugged. "It was worth it."

"Look…" Diana started, not quite sure how to say it.

"I'm not going to say anything to Caine."

"Good."

"So…"

"So we can go back to hating each other again?"

"Yeah. That sounds good."

"Okay."

They turned separate ways at the top of the stairs, Diana right and Drake left. Everything was back how it should've been.


	9. Chapter 9

**Happy summer! Sorry I've been gone so long! I've been busy (as I'm sure you have as well) with exams and end of year testing that stressed me out all May and until the end of school! Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to post a lot this summer, I am going to try and put a new chapter out once a week. I will go on vacations every now and then, but hopefully chapters should be coming pretty consistently.**

**This chapter is pretty fluffy, basically I just wanted to do a school's out (though here it is spring break) fluff chapter to get y'all back into the story, but don't worry, some action-y things are coming in a couple chapters, which is when the plot of the story is really going to start! Thanks for all the AMAZING reviews (I've read every one, I promise). Also, from now on, if you review I will reply to you in the next chapter (I would do it now but I'm too tired and lazy :P ) Thanks for reading!**

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><p>Everyone's eyes were on a clock.<p>

Most were watching the seconds tick by on the clock that resided in their class room, playing with their pencil and listening half-heartedly to the professor lecture on. Some were watching the numbers from their digital clocks in their dorm rooms glow back at them, having skipped class for the day. Others glanced at wristwatches or phone clocks or whatever they could find; everyone was watching the seconds tick down.

The day before spring break, Coates always had an emotionally charged atmosphere. This usually happens in schools before all holidays, but at Coates things were a little different. See, at Coates there was never the question, 'Where are you going for spring break?'. The question more often asked was, 'Are your parents taking you back?'. The thing was that parents of the Coates kids could take their kids back for the holidays or could opt for them to stay at Coates. It was hard enough to be told you'd have to stay at Coates, the place everyone hated, over the holidays, but sometimes it was harder to have to go back to parents that despised you for a week.

"So, let me get this straight- Mr. Merwin's grandmother has allowed the four of you to stay with her over spring break?" Miss Rhyder, the school secretary, looked at the kids over her bejeweled spectacles.

Drake, Diana, and Caine fell into the spring break category where their parents definitely, under no circumstances wanted them back, so they had gotten Computer Jack to forge them some notes from Drake's 'grandmother' saying that they could stay at her home for spring break. As a result, Jack had bartered that he could come along as well, so he stood awkwardly behind the trio, a bottle of zinc oxide in his hand and some already spread across his nose.

"Yes, ma'am." Caine put on his best puppy dog eyes, attempting what he thought was an innocent smile. "She said she wanted to try to reform us."

Miss Rhyder snorted, "Hah! Like that's going to happen." She scribbled four passes onto sheets of paper and handed them to Drake. "Here you go. Don't get into trouble."

Don't get into trouble. That was the motto of most Coates teachers over spring break. Instead of a 'have a good spring break', they reminded the kids that the 'next stop was juvie'.

The trio and Jack exited the attendance office with smiles on their faces, toting backpacks and suitcases and heading towards the main entrance.

"See, Diana, I told you I could convince her," Caine nudged Diana with his elbow but she merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, yes, Caine, I suppose you are superior to all of us in every aspect of life. And since you are so superior, why don't you tell us where we will _actually_ be staying over spring break?"

Caine blinked, cleared his throat, and then bit his thumbnail. "I don't know. I hadn't thought that through yet."

Diana smirked, leading the group through the front doors and out to where cars were waiting to take the kids back into town. "Well, luckily, I thought that through. C'mon, I want to get a hot driver."

So instead of everyone following Caine into the cars (which is what had happened when he rehearsed it in his head), everyone was following Diana into a large SUV.

"Do you know where we're really going?" Drake asked Caine.

"No clue."

_0000000000000000 _

The car dropped them off in front of a large stone mansion with imposing black gates blocking the entrance to the front doors. Diana got out of the car, holding open the door so the other teenagers could pile out, lugging their bags behind them.

"Where are we?" Jack asked, walking up the wrought iron gates and peering in.

"My house," Diana said, popping a bubble from her chewing gum.

Caine looked at her, "Your house? You lived in Perdido?"

"Yeah."

Caine waited for her to say anything more, but she didn't, so he asked, "Won't your parents be here?"

An eyeroll towards Caine. "No, Fearless Leader, unlike _some_ people, I'm not an idiot. They're on a cruise."

"Oh." Caine looked hurt. "You know how to get in though, right?"

Now it was Diana who looked hesitant. "Well, I used to know the password for the gates, but they might have changed it." She walked up to the number box that was connected to the gate, typing in a number and then frowning when nothing happened.

"I could-" Jack started, but Drake cut him off, smiling.

"Well, you know what this means!"

"What?" Diana glanced at him.

"We're climbing the fence, baby!" Drake jumped up and down, pumped up with adrenaline.

"_You're_ climbing the fence," Diana corrected him. "I'm not climbing any fences. You can climb it and then open the gate for us."

"I'm not coming either," Caine declared, glancing at the thorn bushes that lay under the fence.

"What, too scared to get your clothes dirty, Caine?"

Caine glanced at the ground and didn't say anything.

"Alright, fine, I'll get Jackie to come with me." Drake turned towards Jack, who was cowering by Caine.

"I don't think…" Jack didn't get to say anything more as Drake grabbed his puny arm and dragged him to the fence.

Fifteen minutes, and quite a few scrapes, bruises, and bloody noses later, the gates swung open to Caine and Diana.

"I could have just hacked the security system," Jack muttered, wiping some blood off his chin as they entered the house.

"Really?" Drake growled.

"Yeah, I was trying to tell you…" Jack's voice faded away as Caine stared at one of the large pictures that hung near the grand staircase.

Caine turned back around, "Diana, I didn't know you had a brother."

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Ever since Diana could remember, she and Darren were inseparable. He was the one who would dry her tears when she fell off her tricycle. He was the one who would help her with the math homework her daddy said he didn't have time for. He was the one who would take her out of the house when Daddy was drinking.

Those were the fun times, before she knew that Daddy was drinking. All she understood was that Darren was taking her out to ice cream, or that they were going to the movies together. In fact, sometimes Diana got excited that Daddy was picking up the beer bottle, because she knew it meant she and Darren would get to do something fun that day.

It wasn't until after she found out that her dad was an alcoholic and after she found out that he had several mistresses that things started to unravel. She and Darren were still close, still on the same path, but that path was a path to destruction. She became spoiled, wanting anything and everything and when Daddy didn't give that to her, then, well, he got accused for pushing Mommy down the stairs.

After the stair incident, Diana's path to destruction sped up. Darren was going to college soon, something he was looking forward to but she was not. He was anxious to get away from everything that surrounded the house, but most of all, from his little sister, who had turned into a female version of his father in a way. Diana still loved him and didn't understand why he had become so withdrawn from her. All she understood was that he hated her, and so she hated herself. She no longer cared what happened to her; only that Darren lived a happy life.

So when Darren told her that he had stolen something, just a couple of packets of cigarettes from the local gas station, she frowned at him. What was he doing? He was trying to get to college, not go to juvie!

That day, the police came to the door, demanding to know why the stolen merchandise from the store had been found under a bush in the Ladris' front yard. Diana told them she had stolen the cigarettes, that it was all her fault.

That confession, or really, lie, was the last straw in a long line of grievances that got her a one-way ticket to Coates Academy and a one-way ticket for Darren to Harvard.

Darren never thanked Diana for saving his ass. In fact, he never spoke to her again.


	10. Chapter 10

**My main A/N will be at the bottom but I have one quick thing to say. I needed to use Jack's last name in this chapter and couldn't find it so I used the name 'Condle'. I don't know if one is mentioned (can you tell me if you know it?) so I hope this is okay!**

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><p>"This is the way of life!" Caine stretched out on his beach towel, letting the hot Perdido Beach sun beat down on him. "I vote we drop of out Coates and just live here. We could be beach hobos or something, I don't even care. I just don't want to go back to that hellhole."<p>

"I agree," Diana rolled over on her towel to face him and Caine tried hard not to notice how much she was spilling out of her retro style bikini. "Let's not go back, okay?"

"Alright." Caine reached over to grab his Coke from where it was lying in the sand. "What ever you want."

Diana pulled her Wayfarers up onto the top of her head so they held her mahogany bangs away from her face to look at Caine more closely. "Where would live?" she mused, biting her lip. "I don't want to live on the beach for the rest of my teenage years."

"We could take over the town," Caine blurted out suddenly, then frowned at himself. Where had he even thought of that?

Diana however, seemed to think that this was a viable option. "Yeah, I guess. How would we get control though?"

"I don't know. Maybe I could run for office or something."

Diana smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Vote Caine, the fourteen year old, for mayor?"

"Yeah, sure, it could work. Hey, do you happen to know where Drake is, by the way? I haven't seen him all morning."

"No clue, why? You worried about him?" Diana's voice took on a teasing lilt at the end of her sentence.

"Yes. Well, no, not exactly. I'm worried he's going to get us in trouble."

"Mmm, yeah, I can see that happening." Diana frowned. "He better not do anything, or I'll be pissed at him."

Caine laughed, "Like that'll be big difference in how you usually are with him."

Diana rolled her eyes at him, pulling her sunglasses back down over her eyes. "So, tell me again, why are you recruiting your little army of freaks?"

"I don't know exactly, to tell the truth. I just…I just have a hunch, you know? Like, there's got to be a reason why we all have powers. There's got to be some point, some superior being behind it all. And, if anything ever happens, I'll be prepared."

"So who have you got so far?"

"Let's see, I've got Penny and she can cause illusions."

Diana shuddered, "I know."

"Dekka with her telekinesis, Bug with invisibility, Brianna with super speed, and Taylor with her 'bouncing'. I suppose we technically have Jack and Drake too, even though they don't have powers. Oh, and, you probably don't know this since you didn't come when we all hung out," Caine glanced quickly over Diana to see if this made her made but she merely sat there, waiting for him to continue, "but there's this girl named Ariel, she's the new one, her brother's Lucas."

Diana's lips puckered. "I know who you're talking about."

"Yeah, well, she can see the future. Not like, everything in the future, just little flashes here and there."

"Hmm." Diana was getting bored. She turned her head, glancing over at Computer Jack, who was resembling a human strawberry with his sunburnt skin beside her.

"Hey." A voice made her glance away from Jack to where a boy around her age was standing on the corner of her towel. He had a surfboard tucked under his arm and the body to match the surfer stereotype. His muscles were tone all along his body and his light brown hair swooped along his forehead. "Are you from around here?"

"No," Diana answered, flashing his six-pack a smile, "I go to Coates."

The boy let out a low whistle, "Wow, your parents must be rolling in dough."

"Yep, they love their money and their affairs," Diana said.

"Oh." The boy looked at his surfboard, clearly feeling uncomfortable. "Sorry, that sounded kinda insensitive."

"No problem." Diana didn't give a fuck about her parents at this point.

"I'm Sam, by the way," he flashed her a smile.

"Diana," she said, not bothering to introduce the slightly grumpy looking Caine next to her. "You a surfer?"

"Yeah," Sam said, grinning. "It's the best thing ever. Have you ever been?"

"No, but was that invitation to teach me?" Diana smirked at him, sitting up to make sure he could get a full look at her bikini body.

Sam's eyes were wide, a smile slowly spreading across his face. "I-I…sure! I mean..." He was suddenly enveloped in a wave of sand coming from Caine's direction. The grains pelted him, covering his entire body, including his eyes and mouth.

"Ow! Ow! God, man, you got sand in my eye!" he hollered to Caine, hopping from foot to foot and trying to use a sandy hand to get the grains out of his eyes.

"Sorry," Caine smirked at Sam, not looking sorry at all and running his hands through his hair. "Involuntary muscle spasm."

Sam looked as if he was about to say something back when a woman's piercing scream from one of the houses.

"My cat!" she screamed, holding up a bloody and entirely mutilated cat.

Diana sighed, picking up her towel and Coke and motioning for Caine and Jack to do the same. "Come on, we better go. I'm pretty sure I found Drake."

00000000000000

"….and that will mean detention, all of you, for sneaking out of the school without real permission. Misters Soren and Condle and Miss Ladris, you will be sorting through all the school records and helping organize them. Mr. Merwin, since you also decided to mutilate someone's cat, you will be helping the school dance committee set up the dance that is to happen in a week."

Drake groaned, slouching down in his seat in the headmistresses office. "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I am not kidding you Mr. Merwin. I expect all of you to report to your detentions every night at eight o clock until I tell you otherwise. You are dismissed."

The trio and Jack trudged out the room, unaware of the rumor that had spread through the school like wildfire in the short time they'd been away.

00000000000000

When Diana heard she began laughing.

"Tell me exactly what happened," she begged Taylor in her dorm room later that night.

The trio had noticed right away as they had walked through the hallways back to their dorms that everyone had been pointing and whispering. However, all they had heard were snippets of conversations that didn't make since.

"…they were making out against the wall…"

"…romantic dinner for two…"

"…even had a rose!"

"…chocolate is extremely romantic, you know…"

So, as soon as Diana got into her room, she turned to Taylor, the gossip queen for the latest details.

"Well," Taylor started, her eyes sparkling. "It seems that about a month ago, Penny walked in on Caine and Drake sharing a dinner together. There was a rose on the table and everything! When she walked in, they were up against the wall, probably making out or something…" Taylor waggled her eyebrows, "but they tried to act all casual and play it off. However, later that night, I found this," the girl whipped out a chocolate bar from under her bed. "Drake was seen carrying it."

Diana took it from her, smiling as she read the inscription on the bar that Caine had given her to try and make up with her. She remembered giving it to Drake, but had never imagined it would read in the context of something sexual between Caine and Drake.

D~

I'm sorry about tonight, I messed up. Just give me another shot, okay? I want to do this right, and not have it be awkward between us. Meet me tomorrow at our usual spot?

C

"Obviously, they've been together for a long time if they have a 'usual spot'!" Taylor squealed.

And that was when Diana started laughing. This was good. This was too good to be true. This was only the beginning, that much she was sure of. She was going to make sure that more 'evidence' was going to show up proving Drake and Caine's relationship was true.

Those poor boys didn't even know what was coming.

000000000000

However, in another part of Coates, something more serious was occurring.

Connie Temple was in her office, nervously wiping her sweaty palms on her pant legs. Every blind and window in the nurse's office was pulled tightly closed, and all the doors were locked.

_Thunk, thunk!_

A sudden rap on the door snapped her to attention and she quickly got up, shaking, to unlock the door, let the two government agents in, and then quickly close it and lock it behind them.

"Are you sure this is all true, Ms. Temple?" One of them, the one with the cold, hard steel eyes asked. "We have here a list of 5 or so kids with mutations and what their powers are."

"Yes, I am sure it is all true," Connie squeaked, struggling to find her voice. "A little girl, she's on the list, Ariel, she told me all of them. The pictures she took, I gave them to as well."

"Thank you, Ms. Temple," the other agent said, placing a check for $25,000 on Connie's desk. "Your cooperation is greatly appreciated."

Connie quickly pocketed the check with shaking fingers, trying hard not to think about whose names, whose innocent children's names she was giving to these mysterious agents. She had to do this, she told herself, she needed this money for Sam. So that they could scrape by.

"Sir," she asked, as the agents turned to leave. "Sir, what are you planning…why do you need these names?"

The cold-eyed agent gave her a grim smile, "Just so we can manage them, ma'am."

Connie tried hard not to think about what they meant by 'managing'.

"Are there any other children with mutations that you know about, Ms. Temple?"

Connie clenched her teeth, thinking of Sam. Thinking about his light.

"No. No, sir. I do not know of any others."

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><p><strong>So, here we are, actually getting a little plot going? Do you like it? Also, do you want the story to be longer or shorter? I am kinda at a turning point, where I can either make the plot longer or shorter so I just want to know what you guys prefer. Thank you for reading! Please review!<strong>

**Also, sorry it took me a while to post this, I've been on vacation for a little over a week with no computer so... :( Yeah, I'm pretty busy so updates might come here and there (sorry!) but I'll try and post as often as possible.**

**Da Amazing Po-Po-Pony- Aww, shucks, you're making me blush. And, yeah, I kinda wanted to touch a little bit on the other reason that she got sent to CA (she mentioned that the stair incident with her mother is not the only thing that got her sent to CA in Gone). I'm glad you liked it.**

**Obsessed- Haha, thanks! I always think it's funny when people say that because this really is just crappy writing that I like to do for fun!**

**Guest from 6/10- Thank you! I hope it was worth the wait!**

**J- Love the enthusiasm! Yeah, I'm not really into the "What if the Fayz happened again" sort of fics either (it's becoming increasingly hard to find good stories around here...) I'm glad you enjoyed it.**

**Kittylover118- I agree wholeheartedly, Darren is a dickhead. Thanks for reading!**

**Guest from 6/16- I hope you're satisfied, and I'm really glad that my story makes you so excited!**

**love Caina- Yes, there will definitely be more Caina scenes in the near future ;) I love them too. Ummm as for official lovers, I can't completely answer that yet, but I can definitely say they are going to at least come pretty darn close.**

**HiThereI'mMe- You are like, one of the nicest people on the planet! Thank you so much! And, not to worry, I know there wasn't a lot of Drake action next chapter, but let's just say that he'll be up to some...interesting things in chapters to come.**

**Guest 6/22- Thanks!**

**Guest 6/23- Consider your wish granted. I had actually planned on doing what you mentioned earlier, but when I took a long break and then came back to the story I guess it just slipped my mind. **

**gone fans- Thank you so much! And perhaps the reason my next update never showed up was because I'm lazy and haven't written anything until now :)**

**The Girl with a Physic Paper- Thank you so much!**

**wardy 909- I plan on doing much much more, so don't worry. :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry it's been a while! As you can tell I'm constantly busy so I'll try and write while I can! Sorry this chapter is so short, but I promise there is more to come, this is kinda just to ease back into things! Thanks for all the awesome reviews, they mean so much! Also, on a side note, if you are into Harry Potter I started a HP fic called "The Other Chosen One" so if ya want to check that out it would mean a lot! I will probably officially start writing that after I finish this, but I have MANY more stories I want to tell as well!**

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><p>"Hey, Caine! Did you have a fun time over spring break with Drakie-poo?"<p>

"Do you like Drake 'cos he's a bad boy, Caine?"

Caine clenched his teeth as he walked through the halls to lunch. Keep it together, he chanted to himself, just keep it together. He wasn't sure what the rumors exactly were about, but just hearing the snippets of the snide comments people were saying to him gave him a pretty good idea. And he sure didn't like the attention he was getting for this. His reputation as a leader was almost destroyed.

"Caine-" someone said beside him.

"I DIDN'T FUCK DRAKE UNDER THE OAK TREE!" he yelled, losing his temper.

"God, it's just me."

Caine turned to see Diana beside him and he blushed. She was laughing at him. Of course. He was the laughingstock of the entire school.

"Sorry, I…I'm just…"

"Embarassed? Humiliated? Made to look like an idiot?"

Diana's suggestions weren't helping any.

Caine decided to ignore her and change the topic. "What are all these rumors about anyway?" He knew Diana would know.

She looked at him for a long moment and he knew that she was deciding how much longer she could drag it out without telling him.

"Come on, you have to tell me! The rumors are about me anyway."

She sighed. "Fine. Apparently everyone thinks you and Drake are together because of the scene that Penny walked in on that night she got poisoned."

Caine's mouth fell open in shock. That was what all this was about? The romantic night he had planned for Diana had somehow been twisted into a bromance with Drake. He shuddered, stopping just outside the cafeteria doors.

"Caine?" Diana was waving a hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to the Fearless Leader? You're holding up traffic here!"

She tugged on his arm, pulling him over to their usual table as he snapped out of it. He had just seen a poster advertising the school dance. A smile crossed his face as he imagined what Drake was doing right now- most likely hanging up streamers in the cafeteria or something even more less Drake-y.

Then it dawned on him. The way to stop all the rumors. Of course, it would be hard but it would be worth it. Totally worth it.

He just needed to keep cool.

"Hey…Diana?" he asked as they got in the lunch line. He made sure to talk loud enough that everyone surrounding them could hear.

"What?" She had no clue what was coming.

"What would you think about coming to the dance with me?" He tried on his sexy/sultry face that he had been practicing in the mirror for a while now. He hoped no one else could hear his racing heart as he waited for the answer.

She opened her mouth and Caine caught his breath. Then, she laughed at him.

She laughed at him!

And it wasn't even like a 'hee hee' tiny giggle; she broke down into hysterics right in the middle of the lunchroom. Caine stood next to her dejectedly, waiting, as she stooped over, clutching her stomach.

When she finally straightened up, wiping her tear-filled eyes, she had the nerve to say, "Aren't you already going with Drake?"

Caine clenched his hands into fists. With his power he grabbed her wrist, pulling her close to him so he could whisper, "Could you please do this? For me?"

"Why should I?" she giggled. "This is too good to stop now!"

"You owe me."

"I don't owe you anything!"

"I've gotten you out of trouble loads of times when your smart mouth would have gotten you detention or worse. You don't want me angry at you, Diana!"

She sighed, pulling away from him. "Fine, I'll go."

"Fine."

"Fine."

She cut ahead in line, grabbing the spaghetti and leaving before Caine had the chance to say another word.

And that was how Caine Soren threatened a girl into going to a dance with him.


	12. Chapter 12

**New chapter! So some CainexDiana here, more of that next chapter and I know that Drake isn't really featured in this chap (though he is definitely up to something) so I promise he'll be featured more in Chap. 14! Also, it was requested that I make my paragraphs longer so I tried to do that this time. Basically this isn't me really trying to write, I am just doing this fic for fun (which is why it's horribly crappy at times) so I tried to put a bit more effort into it. **

**If you're reading this and like CA before the Fayz fics check out Life at Coates by soontobefamous13 because its really good! **

**(Sorry for the really long a/n but you should be used to them by now :P) Someone asked me in the reviews if Ariel (mentioned a few chapters back) was in Gone because they thought the name sounded familiar. Ariel is an OC and I don't think there is a character named Ariel in Gone (although I could be wrong). Either way, she wasn't based off anything that MG wrote if that's what you were wondering!**

**Thanks for reading!**

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><p>April 30. The dreaded date for Diana. Tonight, after the students left the school and retreated to their dorms, the cafeteria and surrounding area would be transformed into a winter wonderland. Diana cringed as she imagined the large amounts of glitter covered snowflakes and giant puffballs of fake snow had gone into the making of this dance. She personally found social gatherings, unlike Caine, a complete waste of time. And, honestly, it was springtime. Who would want a winter wonderland theme in springtime?<p>

Apparently all of Coates wanted a flashback to winter in April, however, because it was all the school could talk about during class that day. The attention had, to Diana's dismay, somewhat turned off of the whole Caine/Drake thing and onto who was taking who and what dresses people were going to wear. An outsider might have thought it slightly hypocritical that Diana was looking down upon those who chattered all day about their dresses while just upstairs in her own dorm room closet a designer dress she had picked out just for this event rested in it's satin garment bag. No one noticed that, however, or at least if they did no one was stupid enough to say anything.

Diana had more pressing thoughts on her mind, though, like how stupid Caine was going to act around her tonight. With her luck the idiot was going to try and put his filthy lips on her own. She hadn't wanted to go to the dance, or at least, she hadn't wanted to go with Caine. It was so much more fun to be able to go alone, flirt with boys, and just have a good time. That was how Diana operated best: alone.

"Ugh!" She hit her head down on the lunch table in anticipated dread.

"Are you okay?" Caine looked concerned but Diana ignored him. She honestly believed that if she tried to say anything to him right now she would just end up biting his head off. Not that that would be a bad thing per se. The boy deserved being snapped at.

Diana glanced up to where the rest of the lunch table, excluding Drake of course, was chattering away with the rest of the school about dates. Taylor was a little slut in the making so of course she was going with Andrew, one of Caine's minions who was four years older than her. That was just gross. Penny, of course, was being elusive and acting like someone had asked her, when everyone knew she would be going alone. Bug had no one, but Diana didn't find that surprising seeing as even Penny wouldn't have stooped so slow as to go with Bug.

"What about you, Dekka?" Penny asked, twirling her black hair around her fingers. "Are you going with anyone?"

"Nah." Dekka looked sad; Diana supposed she had been rejected. "I don't think I'm going to go. I've, uh, I've got a lot of homework."

"Hmm." Penny obviously didn't believe her either. "And you, Caine?" She looked hopeful and Diana suspected that she still hoped Caine would ask her. Some green-eyed monster stirred in Diana at this thought. Penny had no right to lust after Caine. Caine was hers.

"I…uh…" Caine glanced at Diana, obviously wanting to tell the entire world that he was taking her. The look she was giving him, however, seemed to tell him that he was under NO circumstances to tell everyone they were going together. There would be enough talk at the dance. "It's a surprise."

"A surprise?" Penny raised her eyebrows.

Drake cracked a smile. "I like surprises."

Caine narrowed his eyes at Drake. "And what's that supposed to mean? You aren't planning something at the dance right? Because I want tonight to be perfect!"

Drake just shrugged, which was the telltale sign that danger was coming. "I'm not promising anything."

0000000000

"Diana, please come out! The dance starts in five minutes!" Caine said, trying to sound patient as he stood outside Diana's dorm room door. He had been waiting outside here for around…twenty minutes now. Nervous sweat, which had started out just around his neck had now traveled down to around his armpits, and he hoped this didn't make him smell too bad. Tonight was going to be spectacular, he could just feel it. But it wouldn't be spectacular if his date wouldn't even come out of the room.

"I'm not coming!" she cried from inside. "I've changed my mind. I don't want to hear what people will say when they see me…in this dress and with you!"

"Please!" Caine said. "I won't let them say anything about you, I swear! Just come out here!"

When there was still no answer he decided to use his last resort. This was sort of an emergency, after all. He reached out an arm towards the doorknob and flicked his wrist. His power flung the door open, revealing Diana standing right inside, staring at herself in the mirror.

"I-" Caine's words got stuck in his throat. She looked beautiful. She was wearing a short black dress with gold sequins at the top. It fit around her perfectly, accentuating everything that made boys go crazy for her. Caine couldn't stop looking at the curls that bounced around her shoulders. How had she gotten her hair like that?

Diana saw him staring and glared at him, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the hallway. "Come on! If you're so worried about being late then lets get going!"

Caine frowned; something was off with her tonight. He had expected her to be snippy, but not quite like this. This wasn't like her. It wasn't the Diana he knew.

"Well…wait," he stuttered, still star-struck by her. She smelled like sunshine and mahogany. "If you don't want everyone talking, I understand that, but lets wait just a bit before we go down then. We could go to the oak tree if you wanted."

Diana seemed to calm down a little bit. Caine wondered again why she was so wound up about this whole thing. "Okay, that sounds good. Aren't we not allowed to go there right now?"

"Yeah…but-"

"Perfect." Diana readjusted the grip on his arm and lead him out to their favorite, old oak tree.

The night air was crisp around them and the animals in the surrounding trees hooted and crowed a mournful chorus as Diana kicked off her shoes at the base of the tree. She was visibly more relaxed outside, away from the noise and chatter that was coming from the cafeteria inside.

"What's going on?" Caine asked, walking up to lean again the tree beside her. "You seem really on edge tonight."

Her dark eyes flashed and for a moment Caine thought he had gone too far, as he usually did. He was surprised, though, because instead of getting snapped at Diana just let out a long, shaky sigh.

"I just…I don't know. I think…" she trailed off and didn't say anything. She wouldn't meet Caine's eyes. "Well, when I was younger…like in sixth grade one of my brothers friends asked me to his high school homecoming dance. I went with him, but he…he took advantage of me. My brother never found out, but most of the school did and I was the laughingstock of the high school before I even went there."

Caine bit his lip and reached out to take Diana's hand. She didn't pull away.

"I just…I guess going to another dance, it just reminds me…I feel like I'm going to get in there and everyone is going to look at me and criticize me and…I can't do it, Caine."

Caine was shocked. Like literally, he couldn't move or blink or speak even if he tried shocked. This was crazy. Diana Ladris, self-conscious? That was an oxymoron if he had ever saw one. But here she was, not meeting his eyes and practically breaking down in front of him.

"Diana," he said, grabbing her chin and forcing her gaze onto his. Tears cascaded down her cheeks and onto his hand. "Listen to me. You are beautiful. I couldn't even speak when I saw you tonight. So I don't even want to hear that you're scared about what people will say about you, because everyone else is going to be jealous when they see what you look like.

"And I know that I act like a complete doofus most of the time but I really do care about you. I would never, ever take advantage of you. And if anybody ever tries to do something like that they'd have to go through me first. You understand?"

She nodded, wiping at her eyes like she was ashamed of the tears.

"Good." Caine took a shaking breath. Had he really just said that? "Okay. You know what? Let's do something else tonight. I never really wanted to go to that stupid dance anyway. Would you like that?"

"Yeah, sure." Her voice was husky and it cracked.

"Alright, lets go inside. Can we stop by the cafeteria really quick? I just want to grab something to eat."

She had put her shoes back on. She stood up next to him, readjusting her hair. "I'm not such a big weenie that I can't go into the dance."

Caine couldn't say how much he admired her for that. He wanted to say something to her but couldn't bring himself to it. He was the weenie here.

"Lets go," she said, taking his hand as they walked together back towards the school.

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"Drake! You have the punch ready, right?" Tammy, the dance supervisor snapped at Drake as he walked forward with a giant bowl of sloshing liquid in his hands.

"What does it look like I'm carrying, woman?" Drake rolled his eyes at her.

"Did you follow the recipe I showed you?" Tammy asked, causing Drake to grin.

"Yup," he told her. He carried the bowl out into the cafeteria and sat it on one of the many food tables. Once out of earshot of Tammy he muttered, "I just took a few liberties with some of the ingredients. I think the students of Coates will really like the punch, though."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! (if you care about me and want to read my long authors note it's at the bottom, in case you can't tell, I'm a rambler :P ) So school started for me which is why it's taken so long to post this chapter (sorry!). I'll try to write more frequently now that I'm in the swing of this. This is just a teaser chapter (which is mean, I know) but if y'all hit this up with a few reviews I promise I'll write some in study hall tomorrow! R&R!**

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><p>Music was booming from large bass speakers inside the Coates cafeteria as Diana and Caine walked inside. Diana still held his hand, which surprised Caine a bit, as she led him over to the drinks table. She had her head held high, dark mahogany curls bouncing around her as she strutted through the crowd. No sooner had they entered before the whispers started.<p>

Everyone was pointing, staring wide-eyed at the young couple. No one was incredibly surprised that Caine had asked Diana, just that Diana had agreed. Everyone knew she was untouchable.

"Look at them," Diana laughed as Caine poured himself some punch. "It's like they don't know what to do with themselves now that they've seen me with you. They look star-struck."

Caine smiled as he glanced over at the student body, most of whom were still gaping at the pair of them. "Yes, they do seem rather shocked, don't they? Do you want some punch?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Can we get out of here? I enjoyed shocking everybody but now I feel like I'm in a cage at the zoo and everyone's taking pictures."

"Yeah, sure," Caine told her, downing his first cup of punch quickly. "Just let me get another glass of this punch, it's really good."

He poured another glass, drinking some before turning with Diana towards the doors. She didn't take his hand as they weaved back through the bodies and Caine knew that his time with emotional Diana was quickly fading. Although he had hoped for a kiss tonight he doubted he was going to get it. She was reverting back to her usual self, though Caine was still head over heels in love with her.

She turned back around as they neared the doors, glancing at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You look kinda pale and shaky."

"I'm fine," Caine said, although he was beginning to feel kinda pale and shaky himself. "Let's just go to my dorm."

00000000000

Drake planted himself near the door to Nurse Temple's office and waited. He knew they would come eventually.

Maybe he would even snag Ladris with this stunt.

Now that would be the catch of the day.

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><p><strong>Sooo next chapter we get to see Caine high on medication...:P that should be fun. Basically I want to say thanks for reading this, I've almost got 100 reviews (maybe you would like to take the time and type something in the box below so that I get 100 *wink wink*) I'm really grateful about getting all these reviews for this story which for me is just crap writing, like it's something I do to decompress at the end of the day. <strong>

**As for the future (after this story of course) I have SOOO many ideas for stories! I have an idea for another Gone one which will be entirely in Diana's perspective after the Fayz (but there is a twist to the story which I'm not going to post on here right now simply because I don't want someone taking the idea. Not that I don't trust you guys, but I don't have a clue who you are!)which is going to be really cool. I've got a couple Harry Potter ideas, one of which is Draco's perspective in the HBP which I've already posted one chapter of (it's called The Other Chosen One). I'm not going to continue that RIGHT now because I'm working on this story, I just HAD to get that idea out.**

**I'm also totally obsessed with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series, so I want to write a fic for that as well. My first idea is to be totally cliche and do a collection of Sally/Percy oneshots just because I love reading those.**

**What do you think I should do next? I really only have time to do one story at a time so feel free to review and tell me which one you want!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey! Sorry it took me like...two weeks for this chapter. I had a bunch of tests last weeks so there was a lot of studying going on and not a lot of writing! I was going to post this yesterday but I was camping and had no wi-fi! GAHH I REACHED 100 REVIEWS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS CRAPPY THING GOT 100 REVIEWS THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your reviews honestly keep me writing and make me want to write more!**

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><p>It was perfect. So perfect it was almost hard to believe it was true.<p>

It had too easy to pull off as well, Drake thought as he examined the pale walls of the nurses office. All he had had to do was slip the drugs into the punch inconspicuously as he had been making it. Then all he had had to do was watch and wait as a couple people drank the punch and started dropping like flies before he had gone to the nurses office complaining of having a splitting headache and shaky insides (one of the drug's handsome side effects). Although he obviously hadn't drunk any of the punch, playing sick would take the searchlight off of him for a short time at least. By this time Nurse Temple had determined that the source of all the students illnesses was the punch so someone had taken it away from the dance. Now it had turned into a waiting game- waiting for all the people who had drank the punch to straggle in (they would come eventually, Drake knew).

Of course now Drake had to sit among the many in the nurses office who were all groaning and moaning. Although it was slightly annoying, it was still totally worth it. All Drake had to do now was watch all the chaos unfolding and look sick whenever Nurse Temple came to check on him.

There was a clambering at the door just then and Nurse Temple leaped up, correctly suspecting that new sick students were at the door. Drake started laughing (which he quickly turned into pathetic coughing after Nurse Temple shot him a suspicious look) when he saw Caine Soren stumble through the door supported by a pale looking Ladris. Who would have known that a simple glass of punch would have been enough to take down Caine Soren- our Great Majesty, Fearless Leader, Ballsy Bastard…or whatever he fashioned himself as these days. Caine needed to be taken down a notch by Drake every now then; just to make sure he still respected him. He needed to know that Drake was useful but also powerful. He could take down Fearless Leader if need be.

So, hah, it could be done. The Fearless Leader could be toppled and Drake would make sure he never forgot this happened.

Nurse Temple took Caine over to the end of the room where the sicker kids were while Ladris slid down the wall next to him. He grinned, but not because Ladris was the hottest girl in school, which would be the popular reason for a boy to grin while next to her. No, Drake was grinning because he had brought down not only Caine but Ladris as well. It was like getting that one extra credit point on a test that lets you get a hundred.

He glanced over at her- she had her knees drawn up to her chest, her dark hair falling like a curtain around her pale face. Dark eyes glared at him but their gaze wasn't really angry, just expectant.

"It was the cookies, right?"

Drake's grin widened. "Nope."

"The punch?"

"Yep."

"What'd you put in it?"

"Something strong."

She groaned, holding her head. "I can tell. I only had like two sips of the stuff…" her eyes rolled towards Caine, who had just passed out on the nurses table.

Drake almost couldn't suppress his laughter. "How much did he have?"

Diana pressed her sweaty face against the cool metal of the doorframe. Her hair fell around her shoulders, a tangled, sweaty mess. "He had a few glasses."

"I'll say," Drake chuckled, not daring to be loud enough for Nurse Temple to hear (not that she would have, seeing as there were currently more pressing matters at hand).

He was about to tell Diana about how he had been planning this for weeks now when the door burst open again (slamming a disgruntled Diana in the face) and Mrs. Tulless, the round-bellied secretary bustled in, her make-up shining as worried sweat beaded her face.

"Where's Nurse Temple?" she demanded of Drake, so he pointed lazily towards where she was hard at work towards the end of the room.

She started talking hurriedly to Nurse Temple and although Diana had just curled up into a ball clutching her head, Drake tried to listen into their conversation. Over the moaning and groaning of students all he could hear were bits and snippets.

"…they discovered the drug used…" Mrs. Tulless was saying, "…dangerous…hospital…Drake Merwin…"

Drake perked up at the sound of his name, then quickly slouched back down as both women glanced at him.

"…sick as well…can't be him," Nurse Temple answered. The two were moving towards the door now. "Are you sure we'll have to get them all to a hospital? There's a lot of kids and…well I don't know if I trust them all in a big public setting together."

"We have to do it." Mrs. Tulless gave a sympathetic glance down towards Diana, probably the only sympathetic glance she had gotten in her life. "The drug is extremely dangerous. We have to flush their systems."

Drake frowned. This hadn't been in his plan. Sure, he had wanted to get everyone sick, but it was meant to be more as a prank, not something with repercussions. Not that Drake was opposed to serious repercussions, but if he had originally known this was going to be the case he would have thought things out more carefully. And what had Mrs. Tulless meant about "flushing their systems"?

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It had been one hour and thirty-seven minutes since Diana had puked her guts out and she still felt like crap. Now this really didn't seem fair, seeing as she had literally thrown up everything in her stomach. That hadn't been her idea of "flushing her system". Certainly not. But, when you are sitting in the ER with twelve other juvenile delinquents with poison running through their veins, doctors usually don't give you a choice before they inject you with medicine that will cause you to throw up. She had sat there on the hospital bed with a plastic bowl in her lap for twenty minutes, retching.

Now she was lying in the bed, holding her still aching head in her hands and contemplating for the gajillionth time whether throwing up had really helped her or not. Sure, it was out of her stomach, but it wasn't completely out of her system and apparently she wasn't going to feel better until it was. She still had a raging fever and a splitting headache and she couldn't be released to go back to school until her fever broke.

She looked enviously to the bed on her left, which was now empty but had previously held Drake Merwin. He had had to throw up everything as well (which would have been amusing to watch if Diana hadn't been throwing up herself), but since he hadn't drank anything he had gotten to go back to Coates almost immediately.

On the bed to her right lay a shivering, pale Caine, passed out for the time being. He had had it worst of the trio, seeing as he had drunk not two but three glasses of punch. After emptying the contents of his stomach Caine had promptly been knocked out by a wonderful concoction of painkillers and fever reducing drugs. Diana was slightly envious of his current situation, seeing as she felt awful and he was blissfully unaware, but she knew Caine needed the drugs more than her.

As she watched he stirred, then peered at her confusedly. His eyes had a glazed-over look, like he wasn't all the way in the present. Judging by the amount of meds he was currently on, Diana wasn't really surprised. His tangled brown hair stuck up all around his face and he raised a hand, pushing it out of his eyes as he sat up more, his gaze finding Diana.

"Hey, Caine," she said dryly, raising an eyebrow at him as he whipped his head back and forth.

"Where are we?" he slurred before sinking back down into the pillows.

"The hospital," she answered him. "Don't you remem-"

"Then why are there pillows?" he interrupted, frowning at the thing he was lying on.

There was a pause. "Excuse me?"

"Why are there pillows?" he repeated. "I hate pillows."

"Since when?" Diana was utterly confused. Then it hit her- all the drugs he was on were making him loopy. She grinned, despite how crappy she felt she could have fun with this. "Oh, yeah. Drake put those pillows there."

Caine frowned. "But I like Drake."

"You like Drake?" Diana was slightly incredulous.

"Yeah. He has cool…he has cool stuffed animals. I like those. Especially the bunny."

"I'm not even going to ask what that means." Diana sat back in her bed, letting the tan curtain that was beside her bed block Caine from her view.

"Hey!" he yelled suddenly. "Someone…Diana…she disappeared! She's gone!"

Diana rolled her eyes, sitting back up so Caine would stop freaking out. "I'm right here, Caine!"

"Woah!" he looked amazed. "How'd you do that?"

"Um…sat up?"

"Are you a wizard?" he asked, his wide eyes locked on hers.

She hesitated for a moment before slowly answering, "Yes…yes, I am. Didn't you know?"

"Yes," he answered immediately. "I was just playing along for the muggles."

She laughed. "Thanks."

"Yeah. I would like some oranges now. Do you sell any oranges? Sometimes the monkeys give them to me. Sometimes they hit me too."

"Oh, um. Sorry. And no, I don't have any oranges."

"Dammit, Diana!" Angry tears formed in his eyes as he sat back in bed, pushing his hair off his forehead. "You know I count on you for the oranges!"

"I'm…" Diana was perplexed and amused at the same time. "I'm really sorry, Caine. I'll get you some oranges later, okay? Why don't you go back to sleep?"

At this Caine promptly closed his eyes and started snoring. Diana snorted at him. He was acting so strange.

She had just laid back down, thinking that maybe if she closed her eyes for a little bit too then she might feel better when she heard, "Diana?"

She didn't bother to sit up again so it was through the curtain she said, "Yes, Caine?"

"You're really pretty."

"Um, thanks."

"No problem."

There was a short silence and then, "Diana?"

A slightly exasperated sigh. "Yes, Caine?"

"Can I see your face again?"

She heaved herself up so that Caine could peer at her before closing his eyes again. "Thanks." He was smiling.

"Anytime. That's what I'm here for, right?"

"Yes."

Another pause.

"Diana?"

"Caine, can't you go to sleep now?"

"I haven't forgotten about the oranges."

"Okay."

He was snoring within a couple seconds and Diana was grateful that his eyes were closed so he couldn't see her blush.

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><p><strong>So I think from now on I'm going to post my main AN here at the bottom so if people who just want to know info about this story can just read it at the top and then if you want to hear me ramble you can read here!**

**Anyways what did you think? Please review with comments, I love critique because it makes me better! **

**As for my future fanfics, I think I'm going to start a Percy/Sally fanfic called "Mother of a Demigod" soon. I think since it's going to be a collection of oneshots that I can keep this going and do that as well. I was going to post that chapter tonight but I have an english paper to write so it'll probably either get posted on Tuesday or definitely Wednesday. If you are interested in reading it (please?) then add me to your author alert or search for "Mother of a Demigod" this week. I would appreciate the support as I start a new story. Also I will take suggestions for the one shots if you want to leave one in the reviews!**

**After this fic I will be starting a new gone fic starring Diana after the fayz. I'm not going to reveal too much about it right now, but if you guys want I will leave little clues and spoilers after each chapter of this (maybe little excerpts too)!**

**Review and tell me what you think!**

**I love you guys, remember that you are awesome!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey! So sorry I've been gone so long! I was doing NaNoWriMo, which for those of you who don't know, is where you set a word count (mine was 50,000 words) and then try and write that many words in one month. It's crazy and fun at the same time and a good push to write for procrastinators like myself :P Anyway, between school, color guard, and writing for NaNo, I didn't have time to write this fic :(**

**I'm not really happy with this chapter (I think it's the shortest chapter I've posted) and it's super crappy, but I just wanted to post something so y'all knew I hadn't abandoned you forever. Sorry for the ensuing crappiness, I promise that I will post more (like an actual decent length chapter) in the next few days.**

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><p>"You're joking, right?" Diana was mad, no, she wasn't even just mad she was pissed off. And who better to be pissed off at than the normal object of her hatred, Drake Merwin. "You can't just let him get away with this!"<p>

She paced back and forth angrily in Drake and Caine's dorm room while Caine sat on his bed. Drake, for the moment, was out. Diana believed he was probably doing some immature task such as pouring salt on slugs or bullying small children.

"Diana, not everything is worth losing his trust over," Caine told her calmly. "I need Drake on our side. Plus he isn't the worst person in the world."

Diana rolled her eyes. "Really? Drake isn't the worst person you know? Name someone worse, I dare you."

With a straight face Caine said, "You."

Diana smacked him across the cheek. "Shut up. I didn't ask for your opinion."

Caine looked confused. "Actually, you just did. You said, 'Name someone worse' so I…"

"I said shut up!" Diana wasn't in the mood for Caine right now and she certainly wasn't in the mood for his sass. She was mainly pissed off because Caine and her were the only people that knew Drake had been responsible for the whole 'Night of the Poisoned Punch' incident. Administration, although always suspicious of Drake, couldn't technically prove anything because Drake had 'gotten sick' as well, which led them to believe it had been something else. There had been a small investigation into the matter, which, of course, had led nowhere since the real culprit had gotten away with it all under their noses.

Caine, however, hadn't listened to Diana's pleas to turn Drake in to the authorities, even though they were really the only ones who could do so. Diana really didn't understand his logic. Drake had obviously intended to cause both him and Diana harm and had gotten pleasure out of seeing them both sick. Why would Caine want to spare him?

"Caine, no offense but this 'Merciful Caine' doesn't really fit with your character," she started. "I mean, most of the time if someone steps one toe out of line you beat them into a pulp, or at least go get Drake to do it for you! Why, after someone hurt not just you but me also, are you not going to go after him?"

"I told you!" Caine said. "I'm planning things, Diana! Big things! And we need Drake by our side for those things to happen! I know that he pisses you off, but honestly we just need to keep him on a tighter leash in the future. I mean, honestly, maybe if we hadn't been so wrapped up in each other we could have realized what was going on before it was too late. It was a pretty good prank."

Diana's face flushed bright red. How dare he bring the two of them into this! "For your information, Caine Soren, I was never 'wrapped up in you' and I never will be! I know that you just think you are the best thing since sliced bread or whatever but I personally have other love interests!"

He stared at her dumbly, seeming to slowly register that he had said something that had crossed the line. "Diana, I didn't mean it like…"

"No. It's fine," she said sharply. "I see that you aren't going to change your mind about the whole Drake thing, so I'll just take care of it myself."

She turned towards the door and stomped outside, waiting until she was safely outside the door to wipe the angry tears out of her eyes. Since when had she let Caine get so under her skin? She never cried over boys. And she certainly wasn't about to admit that Caine Soren of all people had broken her heart.

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><p><strong>Yup, like I said, crappy, right? I'm sorry. I promise there is more goodness to come.<strong>

**And speaking of that, I wanted you guys to know that I am open to taking suggestions for chapters. I know how the overarching plot of the story is going to go, but I think you guys could come up with some great ideas for our trio to busy themselves with ;) Feel free to leave it in a review (I may not get a PM because my email can be sketchy).**

**As for my PJO fanfic, I have gotten it all plotted out but haven't had the time to write a chapter yet, I may write it tonight...hmm...**

**Also as soon as I start working on my other Gone Fanfic I shall post spoilers and questions down here so keep an eye out for those (sorry again that I don't have anything for you, I'm really kind of a bummer today...)**

**So, yeah, thanks for putting up with me and my little NaNoWriMo vacation and thanks again for your constant support and reviews, y'all honestly make my day :) 3**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! So I have officially planned out the rest of the story and I'm super psyched for it! So basically this is a kind of sort chapter, like Schools Out Part 1 and Schools Out Part 2 should be up by Saturday, hopefully. I'm really glad and humbled by the amount of reviews this story has gotten and I want to say thank you SOOOO much for reading and reviewing because it means a ton. 3**

**Also, since this fic has been going for a while and you may have forgotten some of the minor details from a few of the earlier chapters, I would recommend rereading or just scanning through them because...oh...I don't know...some of those details may come up later...just saying ;) R&R!**

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><p>Exam fever had descended upon Coates Academy. Or rather summer fever had descended. Most kids at Coates weren't extremely concerned with what their final grades would end up to be. They were all just itching to be done with classes. The breeze of summer drifted temptingly through the hallways, sending classes into distracted fervors. The teachers were, understandably, stressed, because the kids were difficult to keep on task on a normal day, let alone when they were itching to go and lie in the sum or cause mischief elsewhere.<p>

Drake sat back in his chair in history class, watching his classmates descend into chaos with a satisfied smirk on his face. He had thrown a wadded up ball of paper at the back of Mrs. Jenkins' head while she had been writing something on the chalkboard. She had opened the note and, after reading some of the rude and highly inappropriate things said about her on it, demanded to know who wrote it. The class broke out, the more innocent students looking worried at Mrs. Jenkins' anger, the more rowdy ones laughing along at the joke. As Mrs. Jenkins stood and yelled, the idea seemed to catch on and soon the majority of the class was throwing paper slips at Mrs. Jenkins while she shrieked and yelled that they would all get detention. Welcome to an average day at Coates Academy.

Mrs. Jenkins quit the next morning.

But while during the school day all the kids could think about were exams, outside of school all they could talk about was Caine's party. He always had an End of School Year party that was an awesome event. Everyone and their brother wanted to go. That was, all except one. Caine was still working on that one.

"Hey!" he called out to Diana as she traveled to the cafeteria for lunch. "Wait up!"

She didn't stop and wait for him (which he had suspected) so he jogged a bit through the masses of students to catch up with her. She didn't even look at him as she strutted into the cafeteria.

"Hey," he decided to try…but of course he got no response. He sighed; this was going to be harder than he had initially anticipated. "Diana…" he whined, "I don't even know what I did! Can you please stop being mad at me?"

She turned towards him, parted her cherry red lips and said, "No."

"Look, at least tell me what I did wrong!" Caine cried. "I don't get it!"

"I know," Diana rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot, I get it!"

Caine decided to try one last time. "So, are you going to come to my party or…?"

She turned towards him again, her eyes flashing. "No, Caine, no I don't want to go to your little party so that you can try and gather your 'freaks' closer to you."

"But-" he stuttered. "I didn't…"

She made a disgusted noise, spitting out, "Whatever, Caine," and stalking away.

Caine really didn't have the best luck with girls. Or at least, the girl he really wanted.

0000000

Caine sat down beside Drake at lunch alone, which Drake had been suspecting. For whatever reason, Diana was pissed at Caine.

"Diana's being weird," Caine complained, picking at his almost inedible looking lunch of spaghetti in front of him. "Like I usually know what's wrong, but this time she's just being really strange. I mean, it's like…I don't know…"

Drake tuned out his whining. His head hurt. His head had always hurt, but today it felt like pounding particularly hard, which put him in a more irritable mood than he was usually in.

Plus his mom's anniversary was coming up. Not her wedding anniversary or her birthday. The anniversary of her death.

Drake hated that day. And he was dreading it.

Overcome with his annoyance at Caine, emotion over his mother (and emotion wasn't something he was used to feeling), and the pressure building in his skull, he stood up from the lunch table, ignoring Caine's confusion, and stalked out of the cafeteria.

He needed to plan something to kill for his mother's death day anniversary.

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><p><strong>Hello, my loyal bottom an readers! I really appreciate you reading my rambling down here! (Because I know I ramble :) ) **

**Anyway, I guess I wanted to take the extra time to thank you guys for the awesome reviews. Like seriously. I think I'm about two or three reviews away from having the same amount of reviews as ****_The Fayz Five_****, which is pretty crazy because I read that fic before I even really got into writing fanficiton and have always loved that one. Idk...it's just crazy. So, yeah, I just really appreciate you guys enjoying my writing (even when I really, really sucked) and I just want to say, if you ever want me to check out a fic you wrote just leave your story name in your review. I'd be happy to after what you do for me :)**

**And, also, I have recently started writing my PJO fic, Missing Moments, and it would mean a lot if you could check it out for me...thanks!**

**I'm really excited for where this story is going...there may be a few surprises waiting for y'all :P**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi, sorry for such the delay, I blame midterms. :( Now that they are over, however, I am pleased to mention that there will be reviews every week for the remainder of this story. I'm not totally sure if they will be on Sundays, but probably either Sundays or Saturdays. **

**I kind of wanted this chapter to be a sort of renewal chapter, notice everyone is falling asleep and then waking up with no memory. This kinda is preparing them in a way for the Fayz, which is coming shortly...:)**

**Please review it is greatly appreciated!**

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><p>Brianna was excited. In fact, Brianna was over the moon. She had never been super popular at her old school, she had been just a touch too edgy for public school. But she wasn't too popular at Coates either, for the simple fact that although she was edgy, she wasn't really edgy enough for Coates.<p>

So, when she had received an invitation, _the _invitation, to Caine's party, she had been more than a little excited. Brianna never got invited to anything.

She heard the party long before she saw it. The music was blaring through the hallways so Brianna could feel it pounding through her chest as she approached. She flattened her hands against her jeans, trying to wipe off her nervous sweat. She had never been to a party before. What if she completely failed at partying? _No_, she shook her head a little to herself, _Brianna failed at nothing_. She was great and a master of all things. She would be fine.

The party itself was centered in Caine's dorm room but since at least half the school was in attendance the party had spilled out into the hallways. Kids were leaning up against the walls, red solo cups in many of their hands. Some were chatting casually, others dancing, and several couples were smashed together in corners, their lips locked on one another. Brianna squeezed past the kids muttering a few excuse me's and sorry's as she elbowed her way to Caine's room.

When she got to the door she came face to face with Joe, a stupid but muscular henchman of Caine. She looked up at him, waiting for him to let her past.

He looked at her dumbly then grunted, "Um, invitation?"

Brianna felt her heart stop and then sink. She had been so stupid- she had forgotten her invitation. Everyone knew that who ever wanted to go to Caine's party could go, but if you wanted to actually party you had to have an actual invitation from Caine himself. Everyone knew the real fun went on in his dorm room, but, since invitations were distributed few and far between, hardly anyone actually knew what really went on inside.

"Um, well, you see, I did get an invitation," Brianna stuttered, but Joe just crossed his arms and stared at her.

Suddenly, like an angel, Caine appeared in the doorway. "Is there a problem here?" he asked Joe.

"This girl's trying to get in without a ticket, boss." Caine glanced up and, upon seeing Brianna, a smile spread across his face.

"Hey! No, Joe, she's a friend."

Brianna felt a blush spread over her freckly face. She hadn't realized Caine considered her a friend.

"Come on in, Brianna," Caine said, stepping back from the door and motioning to the interior of the room.

She pressed her lips together, looking towards Joe and waiting for him to move aside. He gave her a long, suspicious gaze before stepping away from the door and letting her inside.

"Thanks for inviting me," Brianna said to Caine as she stepped inside.

"No problem," Caine answered. "If you need anything just let me know."

"Okay." Brianna took in the room around her. A bunch of kids (all of whom she recognized from Caine's 'power practices') were sitting on Caine and Drake's beds or dancing to the blasting music coming from the speakers situated in the corners of the room.

"Hey," she heard and she turned to see Dekka standing with two solo cups in her hands. "Want one?" she asked, motioning one of the cups towards Brianna.

"Umm." Brianna was suddenly a little nervous. She was pretty sure there was some sort of alcohol in that cup. She had never been drunk before, but then again she had never been to a party before either.

"Uh, sure." She accepted Dekka's drink and immediately recognized the smell. Definitely alcohol.

"So…you happy it's finally summer?" Dekka asked.

Brianna laughed. "Um, yeah! Summer is like a gajillion times better than school!"

Dekka smiled and glanced a little at the ground. "Do you want to hang out some time and practice our powers?"

"Sure," Brianna chirped. "We'll just have to be careful not to let any outsiders see."

Dekka smirked like she enjoyed the idea of just the two of them together. Brianna agreed a bit- although Caine was a great leader; practicing while also under the supervision of Drake was always a little daunting.

Caine approached them then, a cup also resting in his hands. Brianna could tell by the slightly glassy state of his eyes that she hadn't noticed before that this wasn't his first glass. However, as she reflected on this fact, she realized that she wasn't entirely nervous about the prospect of getting drunk. It seemed fun, plus Brianna refused to be scared of anything.

"Where's Diana?" Brianna asked as she brought her own cup to her lips. She grimaced as it burned its way down her throat, making her eyes water. She had no clue what the stuff was, but it was strong.

Caine made a face. "Not here." He didn't elaborate so Brianna didn't question him further.

"Hey," Dekka said. "Wanna go dance?"

"Sure," Brianna said and they moved together out towards the middle of the room. As they danced Brianna felt a pair of eyes watching her. She turned to discover it was none other than Computer Jack, the slightly nerdy and slightly cute boy that she shared a few classes with.

"C'mere." She motioned to him, grinning broadly. After only two glasses the alcohol was beginning to take effect.

He came over slowly, almost cautiously. Brianna grabbed a cup from a reluctant looking Dekka and pressed it into Jack's hands. He looked at her with wide eyes, looking like a deer in headlights. She laughed and pushed his shoulder playfully.

"C'mon, Jack, put it in your mouth! Drink it!" she said.

He swallowed and then coughed half of it up. After a few more sips he seemed more amiable.

"You know, this isn't so bad after all," he said, dancing up beside Brianna.

"I know, this is a great party, isn't it, Dekka?" Brianna turned but Dekka was no longer there. "Dekka?"

"Hey, it's okay." Jack took her hand and Brianna smiled, the alcohol making them both bold. "More time to us."

Three more glasses each and they were making out against the wall.

After an innumerable amount of alcohol consumption later Brianna woke up in a corner with her bra in her hands and absolutely no memory of how she got there.

0000000000

Diana sat alone outside by the big oak tree she liked on the grounds. True, she was mad at Caine and that was part of the reason for her isolation, but at the moment she honestly just needed some time alone.

So, of course, the person to approach her next was none other than the Fearless Leader himself. At least she had had a couple minutes of solitude.

"Hey, Diana."

She didn't turn around. "You sound drunk, Caine."

She heard him giggle. "Do I?"

Sighing she ran a hand through her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut. Could she really not get away for more than twenty minutes before having to put up with Caine?

He sat down beside her, or rather, he tried to sit, he actually fell. Laughing still, he took her hand in his.

"What are you doing, Caine?"

"I don't know."

"Please don't touch me."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why are you mad at me?"

There was a long silence before she spoke again.

"What are we, Caine? I mean, what are _we? _Are we friends or are we enemies, are we boyfriend and girlfriend? What are we?"

He flicked his dark hair out of his eyes and Diana thought he looked more sober than he had seemed throughout their whole conversation.

"We, Diana, are rulers. You and me were meant to lead. I'm the Napoleon, I'm the Hitler, I'm the one who the people follow and you, you are the one that they all want to be. You are the object of everyone's desire. Girls want to be you, boys want to fuck you. You and I, we're the most powerful people on this campus. We rule this place. That's what we are."

The crickets chirped in the silence once more.

Then Caine giggled. "Do you wanna go back to the party and get another cup of that stuff."

"No." Diana stood up. "And you aren't either. You need to go lay down. Let's go back to your dorm."

Caine staggered to his feet and Diana helped him stand so he wouldn't fall over. "That's where the party is." He smiled.

Diana cursed under her breath. "Right. Okay, let's go to my room." She quickly looked over at Caine in case he was thinking any dirty thoughts, but he was already half passed out, one arm slung around her shoulders for balance.

She rolled her eyes and staggered under his weight back to her dorm room. He lay on her bed with his clothes still on, a bit of drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. She waited until she was sure he was completely asleep before she quickly planted a kiss on his cheek, making sure to wipe her lipstick off afterwards.

He would never have to know.

0000000000

Drake woke up to bright lights and blood. Blood everywhere. He got his bearings enough to realize it was his own blood before he passed out once more.


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi, sorry for the delay in this chapter. I was originally going to have this done on Friday, but, as you know if you've seen my other A/N, my dog died unexpectedly on Thursday. Thank you to all who gave your condolences (specifically FadedSunset and ScarletAndGold13, this chapter is dedicated you y'all). **

**Anyway, stuff is starting to get interesting...I tried (as has been requested) to make this chapter a little longer...Thanks for all the awesome reviews! I read everyone and appreciate all of them!**

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><p>"This is him? The new recruit?"<p>

"Yeah, dropped out of Harvard to join our ranks."

"That takes commitment, kid. Your parents okay with this?"

"I don't have a family."

"Okay. Fair enough."

"So, I'm here. You've given me all the lie detector and background tests. I want to know what you do. What I'm going to do."

"We are the Center of Management of Children with Abilities. COMOCA- that's what we go by. We are responsible for researching and controlling the children who, more specifically in the Perdido Beach area, are developing powers. We need to manage them, make sure they don't get too strong."

"So what are you working on now?"

"It seems there is a large group of CWA-"

"CWA?"

"Children with abilities. It seems there is a large group of them at Coates Academy. A few of them are getting exceptionally powerful and so we're going to monitor that. We don't want them getting too powerful and then rebelling against society! Besides that we're thinking about taking a few of the ability children from Coates and…experimenting on them. We want to see how their powers work and why they developed. Now, do you recognize any of the children in these pictures?"

"…no. No, sir."

"Good. We don't want any one with attachment to one of the kids."

"Sir, if I may ask, when are you planning to take a child?"

"As soon as one presents itself for taking, kid. As soon as I can."

00000000000

The funny thing was that the entire campus of Coates Academy knew that everyone got rip, roaringly drunk on the last day of school. Even the teachers knew- it wasn't like the parties were quiet or kept a secret. However the main reason why absolutely no one was punished for drinking or participating in the many punishment-worthy actions that had taken place the previous night was because all the teachers went out and got drunk too.

After a year of attempting (and mostly failing) to teach a bunch of rowdy kids who really should have been in juvie, all the teachers needed a break. They all went out and partied together, leaving the students of Coates to do as they pleased (and they did do as they pleased) as they enjoyed being kid free.

After the night was over, most would go home to their families for the summer and the few unlucky enough to have been chosen to stay and supervise the children over the summer would return to Coates nursing an awful hangover.

So, for pretty much two days you could really get away with whatever you wanted. Though no parental supervision at Coates would usually mean questionable behavior, this was not the case for practically the entire school was suffering through awful hangovers from whatever crap they had drank the previous night.

It was to one of those delightful hangovers that Diana awoke, as Caine was emptying his stomach into her toilet. She groaned and rolled over. Today, she vowed, she would not assume her usual role as Caine's babysitter. She threw the covers off of her and walked over to her dresser. She had slept in Taylor's bed seeing as Caine was occupying her own and Taylor had never returned. She was probably passed out in some random part of the school. The entire school was full of drunken losers.

She glanced into the bathroom to make sure Caine was still retching before slipping her shirt off and choosing another. Next a pair of shorts were put on, short enough so that the boys would stare. She looked back to the toilet, where Caine had stopped throwing up. Now he was moaning, pressing his sweaty face against the cool bathroom tiles.

Diana rolled her eyes. Pathetic. She left him without a second glance. Time to actually do something with her life.

She wandered the grounds for a little while aimlessly. It was nice for it to finally be summer so she didn't have to worry about getting caught skipping class. Not that that had ever stopped her from doing whatever she wanted, but still. She briefly considered trying to find Drake but after checking the room Caine and him shared she found no sign of him.

The room was completely trashed. There were food and drink cups everywhere, it almost seemed as though the people Caine had invited had purposefully destroyed his room. He was going to have a heck of a job cleaning it later. She saw a few people still sleeping on the floor of his room; she assumed they were from the party. Still others were cashed out in the hall. But still no Drake, which Diana found suspicious.

Drake usually tried to make his presence known. He liked to antagonize whomever he could at every time of the day possible to do so. And his favorite person to antagonize was Diana, so she was a little surprised he hadn't tried to find her already. If he wasn't hanging around either Caine or her or wandering the school aimlessly terrorizing the younger students he would be…plotting something. That was it. He was definitely up to something.

On a hunch Diana strode out of the dorm building, heading towards an old, abandoned shed that stood near the edge of the property. The students tended to stay away from it because it was rumored that it was haunted, but Diana knew that it was just a favorite place of Drake's. The reason why everyone thought it was haunted was because Drake would torture things (or other kids) in there and their screams would echo across the grounds at odd hours, giving everyone the impression of it being haunted. Drake had recently mentioned that he was getting worried he would be found out in his hiding spot, he, for whatever reason, believed that some of the authorities were getting suspicious. Diana knew that if Drake was planning or carrying out something this morning he would be doing it in that shed.

The door was already part of the way open when she approached it, which she found odd. Drake would've locked it. In fact, she knew he would have because he had recently gotten Computer Jack to buy him new locks to put on the doors so that only he had the key to get inside. He wouldn't have been so careless as to leave the door open for all the teachers to see what was inside.

She touched the door and it creaked open. Looking down she could see that the lock was lying, broken and mangled, by her feet. This was very strange.

"Drake?" she called, not out of fear that something had happened to him, but rather that this was some sort of grand and elaborate trap he had set for her.

There was no answer.

She felt a chill run down her spine as she opened the door, gasping a bit at the interior.

It was a plain, small room. There was a large collection of knives along one wall, most of which were bloody and slowly rusting away. The rest of the shed had been cleared out; there was nothing else except puddles of blood and several mangled fox bodies.

Diana shuddered as she regarded the bodies. They all still had their limbs, but every part of their bodies was destroyed. Attached to each other but destroyed. Their necks were stretched out, and then twisted around several times so that some of the fox's heads were facing the wrong way. All their legs stuck out at weird angles, and it seemed as though all the blood had been drained out of her bodies and emptied into a central puddle on the floor.

What was most disturbing about the entire scene, however, was the wall of handprints. The wall to her left was completely covered in handprints, red handprints. Diana could only assume that they were made by blood. What was most strange and unnerving was the fact that all the handprints looked similar. In fact, they looked like they came from the same person.

Diana frowned, studying the wall. Drake wouldn't do this to himself, right? Was he really that crazy?

00000000000

Drake Merwin couldn't believe it but he was almost deciding to be a better person.

It was, sadly, because of his mom. She had always looked out for him, nurtured him, brought out the better side of him. If he ever had had a better side. His dad, on the other hand, was the one who taught him how to shoot a gun. He was the one who taught Drake violence, even if it was controlled violence.

Drake remembered those early days, the days when his parents had thought he was normal. Sometimes, as what mostly happened nowadays, he would get into one of his sadistic stupors, the ones where he just went off and cut up and killed whatever he could find. During those times it was only his mother who could bring him back to reality.

And now she was gone.

He opened his eyes slowly, he felt as though a giant cloud of fog had settled into his brain. He took in his surroundings and cursed softly - hospital. That meant the authorities had got him.

Slowly the events of the previous night came back to him. He had been killing foxes. That's what he had been doing. It was his mother's deathday anniversary and he had been killing stuff for her. His arms twinged in pain and he glanced down to see that they were completely bandaged up. Right. He had been cutting himself open, fascinated with the sight of his own blood. He had pressed his palms into puddles of his own crimson and left the mark of himself all over the wall of the shed. He couldn't explain why he had done it, just that he had.

There had been seven foxes and about fifty handprints placed on the wall. Drake glanced down at his hands; surprised they weren't handcuffed to the bed. He was obviously disturbed, why didn't they feel the need to restrain him? Did they think he was weak?

It didn't matter what they thought anyway. He was done. He was done being sadistic. Maybe he would still be a bully, but he vowed to never go into his crazy mode again. His mother had lived her entire life trying to get him to be normal; she had loved him even though he was a screw up, soon to be mass murderer. He needed to honor her memory at least.

That's why he been so crazy last night. He knew it was his last night of being crazy.

But how had he been caught?

"And so, you seemed to have passed out and hit your head on the ground."

Someone was talking to him. Drake blinked and looked beside him.

There was a doctor, a younger man with dark black hair and glasses. Drake absentmindedly wondered how long he had been talking and Drake hadn't been listening.

"I passed out?" he asked.

"Yes. Apparently the authorities at your school were going down to investigate what you were doing in the shed because they heard screaming. No one would open the door so they had to break in. They found you then, passed out on the ground. You're a lucky boy that you haven't had any serious damage to your head."

Drake frowned. His head did hurt but he couldn't recall passing out at all.

"So, can I go back to Coates?" If they didn't handcuff him to the bed (which had happened before) he knew they weren't going to press serious charges against him, even if he had killed some foxes.

"Well…" the doctor started.

"I know, the authorities want to talk to me. I get it," Drake said. "I'm just ready to get out of here. I'll talk to them at Coates. Or a police station for that matter." Drake hated hospitals. They reminded him of his mother dying.

"No, Mr. Merwin, it's not that. It's…" he hesitated and then said, "I understand your mother died of brain cancer?"

Drake stiffened. "Yeah, but what's that got to do with anything? Listen, I've probably got a bunch of administrative interviews I need to go through, I'm sure we can discuss my mother at another time." He made to sit up and leave.

"Please lie down, Mr. Merwin," the doctor implored. "We have some things we need to discuss."


	19. Chapter 19

**Hi! So I don't know about you but it is freezing cold where I am (we have a snow day today), so I hope you all are staying nice and cozy warm! Anyway, this is a super short kind of teaser chapter because I have one coming on Saturday, but since I didn't post this past weekend I felt bad. Basically my life has been a little crazy but hopefully I'll still be able to keep posting!**

**Thanks for your continued support and please leave a review if you enjoy my writing! It really encourages me to keep writing and I treasure every critique I receive!**

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><p>Once Caine had downed twice the recommended does of Tylenol he began to feel better. Granted, he realized that what he had done was incredibly unsafe, he felt better so there wasn't really any harm done. He had gone in search of Diana and had so far been unsuccessful. It was as though she had just disappeared off the campus or something. He had also noted the absence of Drake, which was peculiar, seeing as the campus was practically deserted. Oh well, it didn't matter much where Drake was. Caine wanted to find Diana so they could play the dodgeball game that was to be held later that day.<p>

No, there was an ulterior motive to the game, of course. Caine wouldn't waste his precious time with Diana with so many other people if he couldn't help it, but this was important. The reason was that after the game both teams were required to shake hands, some stupid thing the teachers mandated. Regardless, this gave Diana the opportunity to touch as many hands as she needed, thus letting her identify new freaks. Of course, Caine knew that Diana might be opposed to doing this, seeing as she didn't understand his obsession with finding new freaks, but somehow he would manage to get her to go.

After all, he had big plans for his little freak club, plans even Diana didn't know about yet.

00000000000

Diana wandered a little aimlessly though the school after discovering the shed, more than a little shaken up. She had always known that Drake was little…off, but she hadn't thought he was mentally deranged!

"Diana?" She gasped and turned around to see Caine striding towards her.

"Y…yeah?" she stuttered, shocked out of her thoughts.

Caine shrugged a bit. "I've been looking for you. Where have you been?"

"I…have you seen Drake?" she asked, watching as he shook his head.

"No, I've been looking for the both of you actually. Would you like to play dodgeball later?"

"Sure," Diana said absentmindedly, not really paying attention to what Caine was saying.

"Really?" Caine sounded slightly surprised.

"Yeah. Um, really. Just…look, I've got to go try and…find someone. Come and get me in my room when we're going to play, okay?"

"Sure. I, uh, I'll be sure to do that." Caine gave her a searching look. "Are you okay? You look strange."

"Yeah." Diana needed to find Drake. She didn't really care about him, not really, but she just wanted to make sure he was alright. "I'm fine."

"Uh, okay. I'll see you later then." Caine gave her another strange look before turning back around and walking down the hallway.

Diana continued her search for a couple more minutes before she bumped into the secretary, Mrs. Tulless, who stopped her in the hallway.

"Oh, Diana, dear, I've been looking for you."

Diana frowned. People never called her dear. "You have?"

"Why, yes, honey. There is…well, you better step into the headmaster's office for a moment. Something's happened…"

Diana felt a sense of foreboding grown in her stomach. "What…what's wrong?"

Mrs. Tulless placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her into the office. "Just sit down here for moment. It'll be alright."

0000000000

"Diana?" Caine pushed open the door to her dorm room. "Diana? It's time to go to dodgeball, are you ready?"

Silence.

Caine stepped into the room. "Hey, do you want to go or not?"

Silence.

Caine felt his heart beat unconsciously faster. The door had been unlocked, which most likely meant someone was in the room. Where was she?

"Diana?"

He opened the bathroom and gasped.

Before he could even think or process anything his body was whipping him out of the bathroom and he was digging through Diana's things, looking for a cellphone. She had to have hers around her somewhere.

Finally he found it and with shaking fingers dialed a number, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Yes, hello? I'm at Coates Academy and I need an ambulance right now. I think my friend just tried to commit suicide."


	20. Chapter 20

**Hello! So basically a lot of crap has been going on in my life (between my dog dying and my friend's mom dying and boy drama just to say the least) which is why I've been MIA for the past months or however. I am determined, though, to finish this story and will definitely attempt to complete it soon (I've planned everything out, I just need to write it). Thanks for sticking around and reading even with the splotchy updates, they will be more frequent now!**

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><p>"Hey, Caine?"<p>

"Fuck off, Drake, I'm not in the mood."

"You're never in the mood any more it seems."

"Why don't you go kill a dog or something? Better yet, why don't you make yourself useful and make sure the freaks are still working on developing their powers."

"Caine, it's been two months."

"Thank you. I had no concept at all that time had been passing."

"You've really turned into an asshole, you know that?"

The darker haired boy flicked his bangs out of his eyes, stepping away from the other boy. They were standing in the Coates Academy roundabout, the summer breeze whipping through their hair. A black SUV pulled up in front of Caine and Drake watched through his hair as the other boy entered the car.

"Hey!" he called eventually. "Hey, I thought we were going to rule the world or something!"

Caine stuck his head out the window. "Yeah, we still are."

"Then what are you doing going to some graveyard?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Drakey, and these are desperate times."

The window to the SUV rolled up and the car drove away, leaving the boy by himself.

0000000000

Caine approached the grave with some trepidation- graveyards always gave him the creeps. It wasn't the fact that he was standing on bodies that disturbed him; it was the idea that so many spirits all congealed in one place couldn't be a good thing. Not that he was superstitious, of course, but one just got a sense of foreboding when entering an area where the dead outnumbered the living.

He made his way along the little path set out for him. He hadn't brought flowers or anything, although he reflected afterwards that that would have probably been a nice touch. Flowers, though, were sentimental and Caine prided himself on not being sentimental. No point in hanging onto the past when all the past was was a bunch of crap.

There were rows and rows of graves to his right and to his left, but he knew the one he was searching for.

_Ladris._

The grave was shiny and new looking. It was ironic how nice graves looked when they were new, as if the more you decayed the less you deserved something shiny. He walked through the rows until he reached it, sitting down in the dirt carefully, as to not get it all over his pants. He never took his eyes off it and yet, unlike most visitors to graves, his eyes remained completely dry. Caine wasn't sentimental.

"You know," he finally said, his voice no louder than a murmur, "we needed you. We need you. I can't do this without you, Diana."

There was a pregnant pause, as though he was foolishly waiting for a response. The only sound came from a bird whistling up in a nearby tree. A squirrel hopped around near his feet, sniffing at the base of the tree, looking for nuts.

"I'm not saying that I don't understand why you acted the way you did. I'm not saying that I don't feel sorry for you, it's just…it's been two months. I can't do this on my own much longer. Drake, he makes an alright second in command, but you know that you've always been my number two. You're the one who's there for me, to tell that my ideas are stupid or help me carry out some insane plan. Drake…he just likes to kill things. And, of course, that can be useful, but he's not the brains of the operation. I _need _you."

There was another bout of silence and this time the graveyard was so quiet, Caine swore he could hear his own heart beating. Probably one of the only beating hearts left in this place.

He waited a second more, hoping, praying she would respond. Of course, there was nothing. Caine felt a shard of ice enter his heart. This was absurd. He shouldn't have even come. He had known what the outcome to this conversation would be before he had even gotten into the car back at Coates.

"I don't know why I even bother," he said abruptly, standing up and wiping the dirt off of his pants. "You're a lost cause, I get it. I just hope you know that this is it. I'm not waiting for you any longer. I've given you two months, but the plan needs to go on. I'm going to rule the freaks and then Coates with or without you. I've already told you that I want you and that I need you. I can't give you anything more. This is it, Diana."

He clenched his jaw and waited. And waited. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, biting his thumbnail. And waited. Of course, there was nothing.

An immature rush of anger filled him and he kicked out, his foot collided with another gravestone. There was the satisfactory burst of pain and he howled, clutching at his shoe and crushed toes.

"You're impossible, you know that!" he screamed at her. "You can't just rot away here forever! It's not worth it!"

He forced himself to turn away, to go and call the Coates driver. There was no point in waiting for a response he knew would never come. Still, he couldn't help the words that were still tumbling out of his mouth.

"I had big plans for us! We were supposed to be together! We were supposed to rule together! I hope you realize that while you're wasting your life away over there!"

He found himself still waiting for her to say something back.

"I hate this," he whispered to himself, wiping hot tears out of his eyes.

He left Diana to sit at her brother's grave. Alone.

00000000000

"Look who came back empty handed."

Caine rolled his eyes as he flopped down on his dorm room bed. "I thought I told you to shut up, Drake. Why are you so happy, anyway? Aren't you supposed to be all somber and 'I'm out to murder the world', or whatever?"

He heard Drake shift on the bed. "Yeah, well, there's something about knowing that you're going to die that kinda makes you strange. Sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're so mad…" he trailed off.

Caine frowned, picking at a piece of lint on his bedsheet. "What do you mean? You're not going to die for a long time. I mean, unless you get sent to jail and then someone kills you in there. I wouldn't be surprised, really. Isn't going to jail one of your life's dreams."

There was a long pause, so long Caine felt as though he had attempted another one-sided conversation with Diana.

"Drake?"

"I know that, I just…"There was a noise and Caine glanced over to see the other boy getting up off the bed and heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I forgot."

Caine sat up, regarding Drake closely. Just when he thought he had figured the boy out he went and threw Caine for another loop. What Caine needed was to be surrounded by more simple people. All this other drama was driving him completely crazy.

"You know you're making absolutely no sense, right? You forgot about what?"

"I forgot that I don't pour my heart out to you. S'not right. You don't need to know all my personal business."

Caine snorted. Not only was he surrounded by dramatic people; he was surrounded by impossible people.

"You know what, I'm giving up. I'm never going to care about anyone ever again. You people aren't worth even attempting to talk to. I try and what do I get? Nothing."

"Yeah." Drake nodded, his grey eyes glinting strangely in the fluorescent lights. "Yeah, that's the point, you're supposed to bug off."

Caine held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Consider me warned. I'm done. I'm done meddling with other people. It's every man for himself now."

"Mmhm." Drake had opened the door now. "Let's see how long that lasts, 'Leader'."

Caine flinched at the mention of Diana. He watched as Drake left swiftly, slamming the door behind him. He let out a long, frustrated breath, flopping back on the bed, exasperated. He was in a predicament, that much was clear. It was time to do what Caine did best in predicaments; it was time to form a plan.

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><p><strong>So hopefully everything was clear in this chapter; it was kinda hard to get back into the swing of things so review with your questions if you have any. <strong>

**Also (because you know I can't just have one short A/N) I guess I wanted to say again, thanks for reading. Part of the reason I think this story is so hard for me to write is because this, for me, is just pleasure writing. Like I, until this point, hadn't sketched out this story at all and really didn't have a clue where I was going with it. This, coupled with the fact that I started this in like 7th grade, makes for some crappy writing. Throw in the fact that I suck about getting chapters up in a timely manner and you basically have this story. I don't know...it's just hard to put something up when I know it's not my best writing (some of the first chapters DEFINITELY aren't my best writing). Basically this has been a learning experience of how to write fanfic, since this was my first one ever, so I wanted to say thank to y'all for sticking around and putting up with me :)  
><strong>

**On a totally random other note, I recently got a Tumblr and am veryyy addicted. I would love to follow you, my url is ofstagsanddoes just like that. Follow me and I will follow you back! Again, thanks for reading!**


	21. Chapter 21

**So, true story, I was actually going to post this chapter exactly on time yesterday but, for those of you who don't know, 's Doc Manager is being super annoying right now so I was _just_ able to post it.**

**Also: I've purposefully made some parts of the story confusing but this chapter should clear things up, hopefully. If you are still confused then leave me a question in the reviews. If you need a refresher on either Drake and his mom or Diana's brother reread Chapters 9 and 10 respectively.**

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><p>The summer sun rose rather drearily over Coates Academy the following morning. Summer was drawing to an end ad soon school would be back in session. For now, however, the Academy had a hollow, sort of haunted feel about it. The grounds were eerily silent, partially because most of the students still on campus were all congregating in the school's rec room.<p>

Caine sat at the front of the room in a chair, looking rather like a teacher overseeing an unruly class. He ran a hand through his hair, surveying the group of students before him. These would be the ones that would make up his 'freak army' as Drake referred to it. All, under his supervision and careful coaching, had become exceedingly powerful in the past months.

There was Dekka, who could now remove gravity from an area powerfully enough to lift two or three other teens up in the air. Brianna, who could run three miles so fast that they were constantly nicking shoes from the gym because she would tear up one pair per run. Penny, who had gotten her hallucinations to the point that no one would let her practice on them unless they wanted to have nightmares for the next month. Taylor had been looking exceptionally promising lately; she was able to sneak around where ever she wanted around the school because of her teleportation power.

There were, of course, many other students at this particular gathering. All had powers of one kind or another, all except Jack, who carefully recorded any progress made by the teens in his PDA.

It was here in these instances when Caine missed Diana solely for her power. It would have ten times easier to see each freaks progress if they had a surefire way of measuring strength, like Diana had. Caine would admit it to no one, but he was secretly worried that another four bar would emerge. Absently he lifted a chair from across the room with his power. He already knew he could to it, but the oohs and ahhs his power brought with it pleased him. Reassured him, almost, that he was still very much in charge. Diana or no Diana.

He watched as Andrew sent out his shockwaves and nodded a bit in satisfaction. Yes, these powers would be just what he needed. Scanning the room, he saw Drake enter with a bitter look on his face (the one he always wore when Caine and the others were practicing their powers). Caine motioned the boy over to him.

"I need to talk to you," he said.

Drake's eyes tightened. "You're planning something, I can tell."

"I want to do something big. Something really big."

"Stupidly big?"

Caine raised an eyebrow. "Do I look stupid to you, Drake?"

The other boy crossed his arms. "You don't have to be stupid to make stupid decisions. I think we both know that."

"Look, hear me out and then if you think my plan is stupid you can judge me then."

"Okay. It'll be my pleasure." Drake tapped his foot, sending an obvious 'I'm waiting' expression that painfully reminded Caine of Diana.

"Alright, so tell me how this sounds." Caine got up from the desk to stand opposite Drake. "You and me ruling the school."

Drake snorted. "Don't we kind of already do that?"

Caine smiled. "Ahh, but see, we only of 'kind of' rule. I'm suggesting we get rid of the grownups. Won't that make things ten times more interesting?"

Drake shifted around, but Caine could tell by the look in his eyes that he was interested. "Okay, I'm listening. What are you planning?"

"What am I planning, indeed." Caine paused for dramatic effect. "Let me paint you a picture: Me, ruling over the school with absolute control. You as my right-hand man. We have an army of these mutants with powers on our side so no one can oppose us."

"And the grownups? What about them?"

"Yes, the matter of authority." Caine winked. "Here's what I suggest: high power Benadryll, the most powerful you can get. I seem to remember you having a flair for spiking drinks?" He waited until Drake nodded before continuing. "Good. Then we'll wait until the back to school staff party and load whatever drinks we can find with the stuff."

"What if not everyone drinks at the party?" Drake asked. "What if some drink more than other? Then we've got some teachers passed out for hours and some only drowsy. Your plan is flawed, Caine."

"That's why I've got you," Caine told him. "What do you suggest instead?"

Drake contemplated for a moment before saying, "We could make…brownies and spike them with the stuff. Then we go around selling them, saying that we're selling them for Diana cos her brother died."

Caine laughed aloud. "That's genius! And we can ask them to eat them right then and there so they can tell us whether they're good or not!"

His mind immediately started whirring with possible things they could say, everything they would have to do to convince the teachers to eat the brownies. This was landing back in Caine's field of expertise.

"So what are we doing once they're drugged?" Drake asked, obviously itching to know whether or not he would get to hurt anyone in the process.

Caine felt a smile come to his face. "Once they're good and knocked out, we're going to stick their hands and feet in plaster and lock them in a classroom."

Drake nodded appreciatively. "I like it so far."

"We also get one kid to eat the brownies. Someone useless like Paint or Benno. We plaster them too. Next, you and I rule the school."

Drake squinted and Caine could tell he was trying to catch onto his plan. "So, we're going to do what with the kid?"

"We're going to blame him. We're going to hold the teachers hostage and then we'll tell everyone that the kid plastered all the teachers so we're taking charge. Then we'll rule the school and no one will know that two teenagers are running Coates Academy."

Drake smiled. "So everyone thinks we're the saving angels when really we're the devils ruling the school with no grownups."

"Precisely."

The boys regarded each other; no particularly liking each other but united on their common goal to cause chaos.

0000000000

Drake had been chucking knives at the wall for the past hour and it was doing wonders to clear his mind.

Caine would probably kill him if he knew what he was currently doing. He would say that Drake was being rash and was most likely disrupting their future plans for cementing the faculty, but Drake didn't care. Throwing knives was a perfect release for emotions he had found.

He had gotten the knives from the kitchen. It was slightly disconcerting how easy it was to get a hold of knives in a school full of juvenile delinquents. He had taken them to an empty classroom, which would only be empty for one day more seeing as classes were starting the next morning. For now, however, the knives were a nice reprieve. The large blades were sticking quite nicely to the green chalkboards.

_Thwack!_

He had gotten it to a nice rhythm now, to where he could watch the blade sink into the wall while picking up his next knife of choice. Every few minutes he would run out of knives and have to go collect them from the wall.

_Thwack!_

It was nice, because for the first time in months, Drake could think. He could think without Caine chattering in his ear every five seconds about one thing or another. He could think without doctors or psychiatrists asking if he was alright. That was one question was most definitely tired of answering. No. He was not alright. He was a fourteen year old who had tortured several people, had spent three or fours nights in jail, had a tumor eating his brain like his mom, and went to a sort of juvie. But yes, he was just peachy. Thanks for asking.

There was a sound from somewhere else in the room and Drake's next knife missed its target and, bouncing off the wall, it clattered the floor. Drake, shaken from his thoughts, got up to get the knife with baited breath. He wasn't scared of being caught, necessarily, but at the same time he didn't want to put an end to his throwing session, which was sure to happen if the administration found him.

Instead, to his surprise, he found, "Diana?"

"Well don't sound too surprised, I live here practically, you know."

"S'not why I'm surprised. I know your parents don't want to see your face around their house again, I just didn't think you'd be able to tear yourself away from your brothers grave long enough to come back to Coates."

Something flashed in Diana's eyes, but she didn't flinch as Drake had hoped.

Diana Ladris looked awful. And Drake wasn't just saying that because he hated the girl. Where she used to be curvy she was now just skinny, her clothes hung off her body limply. Dark eyes, which had at one time glimmered almost constantly with mischievous energy, now looked dull and vacant. Her hair, which Caine had always been obsessed with, laid rather lack lusterly around her shoulders.

"I'm over it," she said evenly. "That's why I'm back."

Drake raised an eyebrow before chucking another knife at the wall. "I didn't know it was as easy as just saying it out loud."

Diana came up beside him, taking a knife out of his stack and chucking it against the wall with surprising ease. "I'm not just saying it. I'm over it. That's the truth."

"Okay." Drake put down the knife and turned to look her in the eyes. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to make Diana squirm. "Prove it."

She threw another knife before turning to face him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Why'd you do it?" Drake asked immediately, hoping to get a rise out of her.

To his dismay, Diana looked as though he had merely commented on the weather. "Try to kill myself, you mean? That's cos I'm messed up Drake, same as you."

"I don't doubt that," Drake answered. "But then, after that, why did you sit by a grave for practically two months?"

Again, it seemed as though the question didn't faze her a bit. "My brother was the one person I had left in this world that cared about me. We didn't speak for years because of some of the awful things I started to do as I got older. But, especially, when I was younger, he would always look out for me. He was the good child, anyways, so we went our separate ways; him off to his ivy league, Harvard and me to pretty much juvie, Coates. I guess. I guess I went crazy when he died because he was all I had left. Even though we hadn't talked in forever, he was the one good person I had. He was my hope that maybe, even though I had crap jobs for parents, I could make it out of here and go to college…have a life. It kinda sucks to wake up one day and realize that your hope has been taken from you." She shifted her weight and said, still deadpan, "We never said goodbye."

There was a long silence then. The sound of the two teen breathing was all that filled the air.

"I'm dying, you know," Drake finally said.

Diana didn't say anything, but she didn't leave either, so Drake continued, "I've got a tumor, see, growing in my brain. Same way my mom went. I watched it happen. You can cut off your leg or your arm if it's broken, but they can't really do that with your head.

"Said I have two years left, three at most. That's why I collapsed in the shed. They took me to the hospital and figured it out.

"Been doing chemo for the two months you've been in and out. Gonna lose my hair soon."

Something entered Diana's eyes then, and while Drake was sure it wasn't compassion, it reminded him faintly of his mother.

"She would've hated to see me like this. My mom," he said. "She was the only one who could take me out of my sadistic trances."

There was another silence.

"Diana?"

"Yeah."

"You know I hate you, right?"

"Yeah."

"I want you to stay far away from me after today. My mom; she wanted me to change, to overcome whatever is screwed up in my brain. I thought I could do that, and then this happened. The fact I'm going to die, it's been eating away at me for the past few months. I'm going to snap, Ladris. After this I know there will be no going back.

"I'm going to be a sadist, not just a kid who had sadistic thoughts. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay far away from me."

She pursed her lips and studied him for a long time. "So this is it? We come and spill our guts and then go back to hating each other?"

"Ladris, if you cross me again, I might spill your guts more literally."

She gave him one more long look before turning on her heel and walking away. "Bye, Drake."

"Bye, Diana."

He could only hope his mother would have been proud.

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><p><strong>So, hopefully this kind of describes why Drake is so completely unhinged in Gone. He was going to try and fight his sadism but once he got diagnosed with cancer he completely lost it. It also kind of explains his hatred for Diana, because, really, they both are in similar positions of despair, but she gets to live, which he despises.<strong>

**I hope this also explains why Diana did some of the things she did (and explains that she didn't die, which some people thought). **

**Thanks for reading!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Hi! I'm really happy to say that I finished writing this story so updates will be every Friday now for certain! I don't have too much to say (for once) other than to enjoy and leave your thoughts for me at the end! Reviews are greatly appreciated, as always.**

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><p>Caine woke up in the middle of the night with a girl pressed against his side.<p>

He hadn't been sleeping well anyway. Whenever he had a new plot for power he could never sleep. His mind, from when he had first developed the plan with Drake to now, never shut off. He was constantly developing new strategies or working out the exact logistics for everything. Eventually he would even get fed up with himself and would attempt to sleep to no avail. Tossing and turning, he knew he would never actually get any rest.

So he was actually sort of surprised when he woke up. Not by the fact that he had woken up, of course, but that the waking up meant he had actually fallen asleep.

Blinking into the night, he reached up to rub a hand over his grubby eyes. He swallowed to a dry mouth, breath whistling through water-parched lips. Throwing an arm up and over his head, he frowned upon finding hair and not his pillow underneath his fingers.

There was a moment of pause before Caine recognized the body that was lying next to his own. A slight grin came to his face as he felt her cold feet pressed against his calves, her body folded right next to his chest. Turning carefully in the bed, he let her hair fall through his finger as he regarded her.

Diana looked younger in sleep, he finally decided. There was a sort of innocence that resided in her features during unconsciousness that was destroyed while she was awake. Her mouth was slightly open, just barely enough so that he could see the tips of her top teeth. Dark hair fanned out behind her head, tangling up near where she was lying atop an outstretched arm. She was wearing just a large t-shirt, which, in any other circumstance, Caine would have thought was overwhelmingly sexy.

This would be the perfect instance to make his move with her, but in this moment, which he realized he would most likely never experience again, he felt nothing but tenderness for the girl. He had, of course, seen her in the few months in which she had been grieving for her brother, but never this close. She had changed, he saw. The fragments that used to line her body had caused her to break completely and although Caine saw that she was somewhat glued back together, she wouldn't ever be the same again. So he had to take this softness while it lasted.

Gently, he shifted his body so that they were face to face. He carefully reached an arm around her and pulled her closer to him, so her breath was against his neck. There was a moment when he bit his lip in anticipation, hoping she hadn't awoken. Diana, however, just sighed a little in her sleep. Her hand, pressed up against Caine's chest, curled around his t-shirt. Her body, encased in his arms, relaxed, and Caine knew she was still fast asleep.

He rested his head atop her own, breathing in the sweet smell of her hair before closing his eyes and drifting back off to sleep.

His mind, surprisingly, was completely blank.

Diana had a way of doing that to him.

When he awoke, she was no longer beside him.

Ignoring Drake's snores, he turned to look at his digital beside clock. It was only seven. He had two hours before class for the year started.

On a rush of nerves and a hunch, the boy rolled out of bed, silently slinking over to his dresser as to not wake Drake. He needn't worry though, because Drake could sleep through World War Three. There was a moment where Caine held his breath as Drake rolled over, snoring, but nothing happened.

He snuck out of the dorm as quickly as possible. The halls were deathly quiet at this time in the morning. No Coates student was getting up early, excited for their morning classes. He treaded softly through the hallways, hoping not to run into anyone he knew. He was a boy with a mission at the moment.

Weaving in and out of doorways, Caine eventually made it outside. Walking briskly across the grounds, he tugged his blazer tighter around himself almost unconsciously - a nervous habit. The California air was still hot and humid around him. It seemed to be clinging to the fact that it was still summer, even though it was still decidedly September.

He was seized by the sudden fear that he had forgotten deodorant. Cologne he could live without, but deodorant…he could feel himself sweating like a pig through his blazer already. At this point it didn't much matter whether he smelled or not. He needed to talk to Diana.

He finally found himself walking on stone, a small fountain was bubbling in the center of the courtyard where he now stood. And there- just as he had guessed- Diana. Her face was expectant but not surprised. She had been waiting for him.

She let out a sigh as he sat beside her on the base of the fountain. There was a second full of silence and then there was the whoosh of water. Diana looked over at him and Caine watched her smile as she saw the ball of water floating in midair between them.

"Feeling a little sentimental, are we?" she asked, reaching out to touch the sphere with a finger. Tiny drops of water flicked off the ball and onto his forehead as it rotated slowly in front of the pair of them.

This was the exact thing he had done when he first had shown Diana his power. He had brought her out to this courtyard, a scared and awkward little twelve year old. She was untouchable, even back then, and their friendship (or rather, acquaintanceship) had made him have sweaty palms every time they spoke.

"So?" she had said, tapping her foot impatiently against the stone like she had a thousand better things that she could have been doing. "What's this 'important emergency' you needed to tell me about?"

He had opened his mouth and then closed it. Opening it again he managed to choke out, "I can…I…"

She had gotten up from her seat, turning to walk back into the building. "Alright, Caine, I have some homework to get to..."

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew in that moment that she was blatantly lying and he wanted to prove to her that he was worth it. Maybe he needed to prove something to himself. Regardless of the cause, he had reached out his hands and Diana had given him a disgusted look.

"Don't tell me you want a hug-" Her reprimand was cut off as her mouth fell open. For the first and only time in his life, Caine saw Diana Ladris completely and utterly surprised.

"Wha…what is that?" she had asked, gesturing wildly towards the ball of water that had floated up from the fountain and was now suspended in air near her.

Caine had felt a smirk come to his face for the first time since he had come down to the fountain. He knew he finally had the upper hand. "That…" he said, pausing for dramatic effect, "is my power."

"Your…power."

"Telekinesis," he said and then recited, "the supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power.

"Supposed," she had responded. "The _supposed _ability. This isn't real, Caine."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you admitting that you are hallucinating?"

"Yes. I. No. Well." Diana spoke in short fragment, her forehead crinkling together in her concentration. She had closed her eyes, blinking hard before opening again. The sphere was still in front of her. "Impossible," she whispered.

"Actually, it seems to be pretty possible," Caine had told her frankly.

She rolled her eyes at him before her face went completely blank. "Oh my gosh," she breathed, her hand flying to her mouth. "Powers."

"What?" he had frowned, wondering if the novelty of his trick had worn off.

"Put that down," she whispered. When he didn't comply right away she lifted her gaze to his and then commanded, "Put it down, Caine."

He slowly lowered the water back into the fountain, watching her all the while. She waited until the water had dissipated back into the pool before she stepped towards Caine. He wore the frown on his face until she reached him and took his hand. This, of course, put an immediate, stupid looking grin on his face. Diana had a vacant expression, however.

"Of course," she had said softly. "Four bars…it finally makes sense."

"You just thought you were the shit right then, didn't you?" Diana asked him, snapping Caine abruptly back to the present.

"Still am," he said, grinning wildly because he knew the comment was going to get him in trouble.

She rolled her eyes, pushing the water ball back towards him. "Oh, be quiet."

The water sphere rotated slowly in the air for a bit before Caine flicked up his hands suddenly, dropping the entire thing over Diana's head. She yelped, her arms flying up to her now soaking wet hair. She gave him a long look before reaching behind her into the fountain, flicking a wave of water towards him.

A smile spread across his face as he realized she was playing along with him. The water fight quickly escalated as she nailed him right in the face, making him soaking wet as well. They fought around the courtyard for a good five minutes, Caine having the obvious upperhand because of his power. Diana was far from being dry within thirty seconds.

In fact, it seemed to be a new Diana all together. She was running around, splashing him and giggling like mad. It was the only time he saw Diana truly let go. There were no longer any walls up between them, her protecting herself from whatever scared her. She shrieked particularly loudly as he managed to float the entirety of the fountain to crash on top of her.

Laughing, she ran over to him and shook, flicking all the water all over him like a wet dog. He pushed her away playfully, already soaked enough.

There was a sudden change then and when he looked back over he saw the light had left Diana's eyes. She was staring at the school with a pensive expression, frowning slightly. Her face was no longer lit up with the glow it had just possessed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, desperately craving the warmth she had just held.

"Huh?" She jumped slightly, as if he had just pulled her out of her thoughts. "Nothing…nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure-"

"Let's go back to the school. We need to shower off." She abruptly turned and started heading back towards the main buildings.

"I…okay." He had no choice but to follow her.

Just when he thought he had decoded her, she proved to be just as much as an enigma as ever.

00000000000

Drake had spent the morning digging holes. Well, he hadn't dug all the holes; he had mostly gotten other people to do that for him. He had been supervisor though and that wasn't easy when you were dealing with nimwits like Benno and Paint.

They were over by the gazebo on campus, the one meant for students to socialize under. At one time it had meant to be used for school wide activities before the staff realized that having any number of Coates students together in a small area was a surefire recipe for disaster. Now Drake was using the place as his personal mixing ground for the wonderful concrete concoction that the teachers would soon get treatment for.

Caine and Diana came over around lunchtime, after Drake and lackeys had been laboring for five hours. Drake showed them (Caine mostly, Diana seemed- as usual- completely disinterested in it all) the forty or so holes they had dug over the hours and the buckets of cement getting stirred in the gazebo.

"So forty is enough for all the teachers and Alex?" Caine questioned, looking doubtfully at the array of holes in front of him.

Alex was the chosen child. The one who would take the fall for organizing the entire escapade and therefore who Caine, Drake, and Diana would blame for causing the mass dysfunction. He would also end up getting plastered so that they could keep him under control.

"Yeah," Drake said. "I'm sure. I counted the whole staff yesterday."

"Alright." Caine finally looked satisfied. "Then I guess it's time to get cooking some brownies to distribute, isn't it?"

Drake shared his cruel smile. "I believe it is."

0000000000

Mr. McKinnley was feeling exceptionally tired before his afternoon classes. Granted, teachers at Coates were used to feeling tired. By the end of a full week of teaching all teachers were exhausted. Today, though, was the first day school year, so it just didn't make sense why he was so tired.

He had vowed to just put his head down for just _one _moment on his desk when the classroom door creaked open. Mr. McKinnley lifted his head to see Drake and Caine enter his room. He made an effort to sit up, fighting against his impending need for sleep.

"Hi, boys. Can I help you? Those brownies were very tasty, by the way. And for a good cause too. I like that."

He saw Soren and Merwin exchange a glance. Caine then gave him a smile. "WE just wanted to make sure you liked the brownies."

"Yes, I did." He somewhat hoped, although he was pleasantly surprised at the two boys behavior, that they would leave soon. He really wanted a power nap. "Say, boys, I'd love to talk but I'm in the middle of grading some tests and really need to-"

"Oh, it's fine. We get it," Caine said suddenly and both boys turned to leave. "We'll leave you to it."

Mr. McKinney waited until they were safely out of the door before laying his head back on the table.

When he woke again he was in a dark room. He recognized it from the basement. Countless shapes…bodies?...lay around him, moaning and groaning.

"Wha-" he tried to say but realized his mouth was duct taped shut.

Panic seized tight at his heart but nothing was as bad as looking down. His hands were plastered together into a single block. He couldn't move them.

Glancing up, he saw Soren surveying the room, laughing. Mr. McKinnley recognized the figure around him; they were his fellow faculty members. The boys had gotten them all.

They were so, so screwed.


	23. Chapter 23

**Hi! Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday and just completely forgot...oops. Anyway, we are nearing the end! I want to thank everyone for reviewing and showing your support for me through this story because that's what really kept this going!**

**Remember, reviews make the world go round!**

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><p>The announcement blared over the PA system the next morning: "All students please report immediately to the auditorium. Something has happened. Report immediately."<p>

Perhaps it was just Diana's voice, which could sound both extremely commanding and persuasive, or the simple fact that all Coates kids loved gossip and naturally wanted to be first on the scene if something was up, but the general population of Coates turned up at the auditorium that morning.

They pilled into the seats like it was any other day, seeming to be completely lax with the fact that there were no adults present. The musty, old smell of the worn down seats soon mingled intermittently with adolescent sweat.

Caine was standing up on the stage near the podium that the headmistress usually spoke from. He surveyed the student body filling in with a satisfied air, occasionally whispering something to Diana, who stood beside him with her usual 'over it all' look.

Drake was nowhere to be found at that time, which came as a surprise. Most of the time the trio was together, especially in the wake of the supposed 'incident'. Drake was watching over the faculty and Alex, all of whom were still locked in a back basement room. Later he would leave the guarding to lesser boys, but for now he still wanted to make sure his plan went off without a hitch.

When it seemed as though the majority of the auditorium was filled, Caine cleared his throat and stepped closer to the microphone. A hush fell over the students, which was usually unknown in Coates. They all knew what Caine was going to say was important.

He chewed on his thumbnail until everything was silent before starting ominously, "Something terrible has happened."

There were scattered whispers and fragments of conversation throughout the crowd as everyone tried to figure out what exactly this meant. Caine cleared his throat again and silence fell back over the crowed.

He continued, "Last night, Alex Casper attacked the teachers in our school. He has somehow incapacitated all of them. I would guess he did this with some sort of drug, as we all know our faculty would never go down without a fight, but again, this is only guesswork on my part. All I can tell you for now is that the teachers are gone and we are on our own."

He paused and whispers scattered through the crowd once more.

Someone, a sixth grader by the looks of it, yelled out, "So the teachers are hidden somewhere in the school?"

"It would seem that way," Caine said. "Although we have been searching for them with no avail. For now, I would say, we will just have to take care of ourselves."

"I like it better that way!" someone yelled out and a couple students murmured their agreement in the crowd. "Let's not even look for the teachers!"

Caine allowed himself a chuckle. "I appreciate your spirit, however, we do have people searching for our faculty as we speak. I don't know when we will find them, though, because our people have been searching for a while and they haven't found a trace. Alex was very thorough.

"Speaking of Alex, we still haven't tracked him down, so I would like to stress that he is _highly _dangerous. Please don't go out looking for the teachers on your own. I'm sure they would appreciate the effort, but we have our own search teams out and I don't want any of you all getting hurt.

"For now, though, I think that we should all band together and make sure everything stays alright until the teachers come back. Diana, Drake, and I have put together a sort of system that will work well for the mean time. Now, don't worry, I'm not going to be 'in charge' per se, I'm just going to be your voice. That way we will have one person to represent the views of the many. Drake is going to be security and what I mean by security is watching out to make sure Alex isn't trying to make moves on any of you."

"What's Ladris get to do?" an older boy catcalled out of the mass of students. "She gonna make room calls at night to liven everyone up?" Several students cheered their agreement.

Caine felt the defensive lion in his chest roar in disapproval but he forced himself not to respond, instead saying, "I think I'll let Diana answer that one."

He stepped back from the mic to allow Diana to walk up. Convincing himself that he wasn't staring at her butt, he was just making sure she wouldn't fall off the podium; he watched as she tapped the microphone and then gave the crowd a middle finger.

"As much as I would love allow you ugly apes to rub your hands all over me, I think I will pass," she said curtly before whipping around and stepping off the podium.

Again there were catcalls. Caine could punch every single one of them.

He plastered a smile on his face and returned to the mic, saying, "We will be serving meals at all the regular times and the curfew is same as always." He held up his hands in a placating gesture, as there were several groans at this. "We just don't want anyone out late where Alex could get them. Other than that, feel free to take the day off to do whatever you want. Remember, we're grownup free!"

There were cheers and claps at this. Caine stepped down from the podium to watch everyone file out of the auditorium excitedly, chattering to each other at top speed. He felt a smile come to his face. He had done it. It was a crazy, insane, and stupid plan, but it had worked. All the planning had really paid off.

"What'd'ya think?" he asked, turning towards Diana. "Did I convince them?"

"Yeah," she said and he was surprised by the compliment until she added, "but they're all so stupid they would have believed you no matter what you told them. I wouldn't be surprised if you told them you stole the moon and they ate it up."

This was true. Caine wasn't going to tell her that, though. "Want to go get something to eat? I hear Drake's cooking, which should be interesting to see."

"As long as it's not his famous brownies, I think I'm in."

00000000000

Connie knew as soon as she drove into work that night that something was amiss. Call it a mother's intuition but after years raising practically two teenage boys (if Quinn was included), she had grown to just _know _when something was wrong. And something was _definitely _wrong at Coates.

For starters the gate was open. Wide open. And no one was at the gatehouse. The gate was _always_ closed. That kind of went without saying; you have a school dedicated to taking kids who were 'special cases', you lock the gates at night. Not only do you not want anyone sneaking in, but you certainly don't want anyone sneaking out.

Yes, that was strange, but Connie could get over it. Put it down to jumpy nerves. The nerves were to be expected because she had just had another conversation with the Center Of Management Of Children with Abilities. COMOCA, they called themselves. They scared the living daylights out of Connie for several reasons, the first being that she was sure they weren't planning on doing humane things to the children they captured and the second being that she herself had a child they would like to capture if they knew about him. She did, however, desperately need money and they desperately needed information about the children at Coates, so they were in a mutual partnership at the moment. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

She tried to breathe deeply the whole drive up the winding Coates grounds, her attempts to convince herself nothing was wrong failing miserably. The tress and surrounding areas were deathly silent. Suspiciously silent. There was always a couple kids breaking curfew and making out on the grounds. This was all incredibly strange.

Pulling her car into the parking lot she marveled a little at how many cars were still there. Again, it was strange that there were so many teachers still here on the Monday that school started. Parking, she slammed the door shut and walked into the school with a hint of trepidation.

Inside was a ghost town. All the administrative offices were dark and closed. Connie stopped walking; making sure that there wasn't something dangerous going on. There weren't any signs of struggle in any of the offices or classrooms.

She walked on until she ran into her son.

He was walking down the hallway alone, silhouetted against the shadows. His blazer hung haphazardly around his shoulders, hair long like Sam's except much, much darker.

"Hello, Caine."

He stopped and jumped a little bit, like she had scared him. He looked at her like a deer in headlights for a second before his face softened. "Oh, Nurse Temple, what are you doing here?"

She smiled a little, "I work here, remember? Where are all the teachers?"

She saw his eyes flicker and knew immediately he was about to lie. "They're at a faculty meeting. I'm sure they will be done soon."

"Oh." She knew right then, again it must have just been her intuition, she knew Caine had done something with the teachers. "Well, I, I will just be going. I had to just check in on something." She hoped desperately that her lie was somewhat believable.

His eyes softened, the tension going out of them somewhat. Connie knew he believed that she was leaving. "Alright." She watched his retreating back as he returned down the hallway he had come from.

She took a couple deep breaths to steady herself. With slightly shaking hands she reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. Unlocking it, she brought up the dial pad. _Call 911, Connie, _she told herself. _Do the right thing. Something is obviously wrong here; you should call the authorities. _Yes, that would have been the right thing to do, but she knew she couldn't do it.

She blindly, before she could change her mind, punched in another number.

"Hello?" She brought the phone up to her ear.

"This is Connie Temple," she breathed. "I'm the bug from Coates Academy. There are many Children With Abilities here and for whatever reason all the grownups have been taken somewhere. If you would like to take some children from testing…" She drew a wobbly breath. "If you would like to take some children now would be a good time."

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then a robotic voice said, "Thank you for your information. There will be COMOCA agents moving in tomorrow for child extraction. Please remove yourself from the premises so you are not accidentally injured."

Connie squeezed shut her eyes. The words 'accidentally injured' rang throughout her mind. Children were going to get hurt tomorrow because of her.

And yet, "Will I…will I get compensation for this?"

"We will decide the level of compensation based on how many children we receive."

"But-"

The line clicked off.

Connie flew out the door of Coates and ran to her car. Ripping open the door, she clambered into the seat and just sat there and shook. What had she done? And she had done it all for Sam.

With a screech she chucked her phone across the car so it ricocheted off the window. Then she just buried her face in her hands and cried.


	24. Chapter 24

**Yay! Action-y chapter! Hope you like it, as this story is rapidly coming to an ending! Only two updates left after this (I think :( ) Please tell me what you think in a review!**

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><p>Caine had been half hoping that Diana would come back in his bed the following night but he had been sorely disappointed. Not that he had really expected her to; in fact, he would have been extremely surprised if she had. But he had wanted her to and she hadn't and so he had lain awake, listening to Drake snore and puzzling over his personal enigma.<p>

That's when the door to his dorm room had burst open. He shot up in bed, expecting to see some lackey of Drake's come to tell him the teachers had somehow escaped. Caine was preparing to blast them in the face with his power (see what they thought of waking him up at 9 in the morning when they were smushed against the wall) when he realized that either some six graders had gotten hold of growth hormones or these were no Coates students in his room.

The figures went over to Drake's bed first, pinning down his arms and legs as he woke up struggling. Caine was frozen in shock. He watched in awe as one of the figures pressed a long, pencil-like object to Drake's neck. There was a CRACK and Drake gave out a yell, struggling further.

"No powers," one of the men in black muttered to the other.

They released him immediately, as though he were burning them. They turned their masked faces towards Caine. He suddenly remembered how to move his limbs.

As though he was hit with an electric shock, Caine bolted off the bed, dodging to the side of his attackers. Unfortunately, the dorm rooms were small and there was not much room for him to maneuver around the figures. They grabbed him roughly and threw him back down on the bed.

He struggled against the people trying to pin him down but all he got in return was a rough punch to the face. He felt blood trickle into his mouth and for the first time since they had entered the room he felt afraid.

"That's it, boy, nice and easy."

He felt the pencil thing pressed against his neck. There was the same CRACK and a snap of pain coursed through his body. A yell escaped him and he struggled against his assailants again but this time something was different. Whatever they had put in his neck had caused him to become drowsy and the world was cloudier now. He struggled but knew nothing was going to come out of it.

There was a whoop from above him. "Here's one with powers. We're going to make bank on this lot."

Another voice, gruffer, "Get 'em out in the hallway with the others."

He felt himself being lifted but all he could do was flop limply around. He watched as he passed Drake, the boys looking at each other with wide eyes. Caine felt his stomach twist roughly with fear.

He was taken out into the hallway and thrown roughly against the wall. He was stomach-down, face pressed into the musty carpeting. His hands were wrenched up harshly behind his back and wrapped up in something.

_Duct tape, _Caine thought vaguely. They knew about the powers. They were preventing him from using his. The only asset he had, taken from him in the blink of the eye.

Something shifted beside him and a foot brushed against his forehead.

Caine craned his eyes up, still unable to move completely. Diana lay next to him, looking just as groggy. Her face was covered in blood, it looked as though she had a black eye as well as a nicely bleeding nose. Caine assumed the fight in her dorm room had been worse considering both Taylor and her had a power.

"Diana," he tried to say, although it came out as more of a grunt seeing as he still felt as though he didn't have control over his own body. "Are you okay?"

Her head shifted slowly towards him and she spoke with her eyes closed, blood running into her mouth. "M'alright, just…tired."

He knew the feeling. And it scared him to think that right then someone could've come up and put a gun to the back of his head and he would've been completely helpless.

"Caine," she was saying and he turned back towards her. "Are we gonna die? I feel funny…like dying."

"No," he said firmly, it was the first coherent word he had spoken since being shot with whatever they had put in his neck. "No, we're gonna be just fine."

"Hey! Stop talking down there!" Boots were heard stomping along the ground and stopping at Caine and Diana. Caine squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that whoever it was moved along soon enough.

There was movement and Caine craned his head to watch as the hooded figure reached down and jerked Diana off the floor. She cried out as her head whacked against the wall, the man handling her roughly. _Do something!_ Caine screamed to himself but once again his body betrayed him. He was practically paralyzed.

He watched as the person regarded Diana. She did look strange to Caine. Her eyes spaced out, like she wasn't all there. His heart seized at the possibility that they had shot her full of something different and she was dying right then and there, without him being able to do anything.

"Hey!" the person called and soon other members of the masked brigade were coming down towards were Caine was. In their hands were duct tape, a few pistols (which made a cold sweat break out along the back of his neck) and the pencil things that had let them know whether they were freaks or not.

"This girl," the man holding Diana was saying. "There's been a mistake. She's not a Child With Abilities."

"What are you talking about?" the rough voice man from Caine's dorm room responded. "She tested positive, of course she's a COA. Are you saying our machines are defective, rookie? I thought you came from Harvard. Doesn't that make you smart?"

Caine scrutinized the man who Rough Voice had called a rookie. He didn't know why but something was off about him. Slightly familiar. Of course, it was hard to tell what was familiar and what wasn't when the person you are looking at is wearing black from head to toe.

"Just trust me," Mr. Familiar was saying. "Just let her go."

Rough Voice narrowed his eyes. "Now hold up just a second. You know what that sounds like, rookie? That sounds like you know her. That sounds like you're trying to save her butt from getting whatever procedures we need to do to figure this out done to her. And you know why that's suspicious? Because when you signed up for this you said you didn't know anyone with abilities."

"Just test her again! I don't have abilities so she can't!" Mr. Familiar said. "It runs in families, doesn't it?"

Rough Voice held the pencil device up to Diana's neck again (she wasn't even struggling any more) but Caine's mind was whirring about other things. Unless he was wrong, what Mr. Familiar just said meant he was…

"Darren?" he croaked out. He saw Mr. Familiar look down and knew he had scouted him out. "You're supposed to be dead, my friend."

There was the CRACK and Diana went completely limp in Darren's arms. Caine guessed the concoction of all the drugs that were currently swirling through her body was too much for her.

"There. For the second time. She has abilities." Rough Voice pocketed the device, looking disdainfully towards Darren. "I must say, rookie. I'm disappointed. I thought you agreed to cut all ties by joining us. I thought you even agreed to fake your own death."

It was all clicking into place.

Caine saw Darren glance down at Diana and saw something flicker in his eyes. He was Caine's only hope of getting out of here without getting captured. He had to turn Darren to his side.

"I…I am on your side?" Darren stammered but it came out like a question, which even Caine had to admit was unconvincing.

"Just not when it comes to your own family?" Rough Voice asked. "Never mind that now, I understand this must have come as a surprise to you. Luckily, we can put that behind us as long as you do one simple thing for me."

"What?" Darren said eagerly. Caine realized then that Darren was just as scared as Rough Voice as he was. "I'll do anything."

"Good." Rough Voice handed Darren a gun. "Then shoot her."

Diana still was passed out, unable to defend herself. Caine felt his heart thumping in his throat.

Darren looked down at his little sister, indecision wracked in every one of his features.

"I…" he hesitated. "Don't you need her? For the experiments?"

"Nah," Rough Voice said and Caine felt his heart sink. He had been banking on that. "We've got a ton of them here. We'll be fine with one less. Plus, who says we can't still analyze her brain even though she's dead? Prove to me you are on our side."

Caine saw Darren's finger itch towards the safety.

"Don't do it!" Caine cried. He had no power and he had no way to move. All he had were words now. "Darren, Diana loved you so much. She knew that she did wrong to you and she knew that she was bad in the past but you were everything to her. All she ever wanted was to make up with you but she never got the chance. When she heard that you died, she literally went crazy. She wouldn't talk to anyone…she even tried to kill herself!"

Darren's hand switched off the safety.

Caine's voice rose in desperation. "She said that you were so good, that you were the only good left in her family! Prove that to me! Show me that all the hope she had in you was right!"

Darren put the gun next to her temple. Diana didn't even stir.

"She won't feel a thing," Rough Voice said. "She won't even know what happened."

"I…I can't," Darren stuttered, his face stark white.

"Yes, you can," urged Rough Voice. "You've already given up everything. Everyone 'cept this boy thinks you're dead. All you've got is us."

"She's your sister!" Caine screamed. "For Christ's sake, save her! You're the only one she loved!"

Darren's eyes were hauntingly hollow. "I know," he said. "I loved her too. Once."

He closed his eyes and relaxed his grip on her. Caine breathed a sigh of relief. He may now still be going to be taken away for whatever gruesome testing that was going to be preformed but at least he would have Diana.

Then the gun fired.

Caine heard her body hit the ground. He heard his heart shatter.

He forced himself to look at Darren because he knew once he did so he would be filled with enough rage to stand and beat the living hell out of him. But when he looked up there was no one.

The hallway was still lined with Coates students but their attackers were no longer there.

With a jolt, Caine realized that the bullet was imbedded in the wall opposite them, not in Diana's head. It had grazed across her forehead, leaving a deep gash but it had not entered her skull. When Darren disappeared he had dropped her, causing his aim to be just slightly off.

Diana was here.

All the adults, however, were gone.

Just Gone.


	25. Chapter 25

**Hey, so I'm a loser and just completely forgot to post this chapter (whoops). I've been swamped with school work, so I can't say when exactly the next installment of this will be. Anyways, this is the FINAL CHAPTER! AHHHH! There will be a shorter epilogue after this, but for the most part this is the last big shebang! Thanks a ton for reading this, there will be a long A/N on the bottom of this because I don't believe in posting A/N on the last chapters of stories (Idk, I just like to let them stand alone). **

**So, yeah, if you like it, review!**

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><p>Coates was in a state of utter and complete chaos.<p>

Most of the freaks were injured in some way or another from when their attackers had come. Some of the other students were injured too; they had fought as well. For a second after the adults disappeared, there was nothing but shocked whispers and a couple whimpers from the injured.

Drake, his head had finally stopped spinning enough to get up, stood right by the doorway, surveying the hallway. Seeing Ladris on the ground made him smile, though he really whished the bullet had finally done her in. His eyes went to Caine, who was stark white against the dark carpet.

"Call 911," he told Drake. "I have no clue what just happened but please just get some help."

Drake pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and frowned at it. "I have no service. I can't."

He watched Caine's eyes dart back and forth, calculating. "Go check on the teachers, will you? Maybe this is some weird hallucination or trick."

Drake nodded, not used to just taking order from Caine with no sass but just as curious to see where all the grownups were as he was. For some reason there was something much scarier about all the grownups being gone when they were taken from them with no warning. Eliminating the teachers had seemed fun while they knew they could still get the teachers back. Now, with the unbelievable threat that all the adults really had disappeared, it didn't seem so funny.

Drake ducked and jogged quickly through the hallways, marveling at just how many freaks there were against the walls. He pounded down the stairwell quickly, his heart pumping in time to his steps. Throwing open the door to the back basement, he practically ran to where he kept the teachers.

All he got were two freaked out looking guards who swore they hadn't let out anyone. Yet the classroom was empty.

Drake took a breath. He needed to think logically. People didn't just disappear into thin air. They must have escaped. Yet, there were no signs of struggle by the door. There were no marks on the floor that would indicate the teachers scraped their way out with the concrete blocks on their arms.

"They just disappeared?" he asked the guards again, just to make sure. They nodded numbly. "And where's Chris, wasn't he guarding with you guys?"

"He disappeared too," one of the boys said. "One second here, the next…"

"Gone," the other boy finished for him.

Drake's mind was whirring quickly. It was all coming together.

"How old was he?"

The guards looked at each other. "Like fifteen, maybe?"

Fifteen. Drake wasn't sure but perhaps this was the 'age of disappearance'. He would have to ask around a little more to be sure.

That was when, up ahead, he suddenly saw something shimmer slightly. Pushing past the guards, he half ran to where it was.

An opaque wall was running right through Coates. It cut directly through the hallway, curving slightly and then continuing into the maintenance room. Drake ran to the nearest door outside, clambered through it and saw that the wall continued outside as well.

It continued as long as he could see to the left and to the right it cut through the school again. Craning his head up, he also saw that it curved towards the sky, like a dome. They seemed to be trapped in a sort of giant fishbowl.

Reaching out a hand, he placed his palm against the wall before immediately drawing it back, howling. Yeah, he wouldn't be touching that again.

He knew it was only a matter of time before other people figured out the same things as him, if they hadn't figured it out already. He needed to get back inside to Caine.

Ducking back through the door, he ran back through the school to the hallway outside his dorm room. Diana still lay on the floor, unconscious, but the other freaks seemed to be stirring more. Caine was in sitting position when he reached him, his head in his hands.

"Drake," he said, "please tell me what's going on."

Drake opened his mouth, preparing to let Caine in on everything he had heard and discovered, but suddenly there was a yell from down the hallway.

"Hey, there they are! They're the ones that made this happen to us!"

Caine frowned. "Who is that?"

"Brianna," Drake informed him. "And she looks angry."

Brianna marched down the hallway towards them with a couple other freaks, Dekka and Taylor. Drake was right, she did look angry. The group stopped in front of them, their eyes lit with fire.

"You're the ones responsible for disposing of the teacher," Brianna said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "We know because we found Alex. Why would you lie to us, Caine? I thought we were on your side?"

Drake could tell this was going nowhere good.

"Look," Caine said, "that was a prank. A harmless prank. We were planning on letting them go today."

"Yeah, well, because there were no adults those thugs were able to get in." Dekka looked down towards Diana. "They almost killed us all."

"But they didn't," Caine insisted. "We need to all band together now, put that behind us. We've got bigger issues now."

"Yes, we do have bigger issues," Brianna agreed. "Which is why you are no longer our leader, Caine. We'd rather run ourselves."

Caine looked shell-shocked. Drake would've smirked had the situation not been quite so dire.

"Do you really want to make enemies with us, Brianna?" Drake asked, adding in his best sneer.

Brianna didn't seem fazed. "I don't really care at this point. All I know is that something's going on and that we need a leader who won't lie to us."

She turned and the rest of her posse stomped off with her. Halfway down the hall, she called, "Caine lied to you and he's bound to do it again. Stick with us and we'll make sure that we get through whatever's going on together, without lies. Who's with me?"

To Drake's dismay, a large number of the kids responded positively. The rest glanced around nervously, some even looking down the hall at Caine and Drake as though they weren't sure which side to pick but were too scared to defy Caine and face his wrath.

"We are going to stay in the cafeteria for now," Dekka added. "If you would like to join us, that's where we'll be. We're going to have food and water and a place for everyone to sleep while we figure out this mess."

Drake looked at Caine. They were staking out territory! They were making moves! Caine wasn't doing anything. He just looked shocked.

Drake grabbed him and pulled him to his feet, steering him into their dorm room. He shoved Caine onto the bed, saying, "What are you thinking? We need to retaliate!"

"No," said Caine slowly. "We don't have the numbers. What we need is a plan."

00000000000

"Just hold still, will you?" I'd be done so much sooner if you weren't squirming around!"

"I'm squirming because it hurts!" Diana complained, still flinching away from where Caine was attempting to clean off the cut on her forehead with a rag. "What did you put on there anyway? It stings!"

Caine rolled his eyes and took a breath, trying to be patient. "I told you , it's hydrogen peroxide. It cleans wounds, I got it from Nurse Temple's, remember?"

She just glared at him.

Ever since she had woken up from the attack she had reverted back to her normal, pissy self. Caine knew she was completely unaware of the Darren situation but decided not to tell her anything. Things would be better that way.

"Now come on," he was saying. "Just let me finish real quick and then it won't sting anymore."

"It'll still hurt like a demon," she grumbled but Caine ignored her.

Reaching back up for her face, he placed the rag on her forehead, wiping away the remainder of the blood and dirt that had accumulated there.

Diana winced. "Jesus Christ! Stop!" She reached up to bat his hand away but he was already finished.

"There. Was that really so awful?" he asked, throwing the rag into the wastebasket.

"Yes," Diana complained, reaching up to touch her head gingerly.

Caine batted her hand away. "Don't touch it with your grimy hands! I just cleaned that!"

She glared at him, giving here her best 'Diana death glare'. "Yes, I'm aware you just cleaned it. I had to sit here while you tortured me!"

Caine turned away so she wouldn't see him smile. Luckily, Drake entered the dorm room then, providing the viable distraction. He looked pissed and Caine knew he wouldn't come bearing good news.

Drake collapsed on the bed, tossing Caine two granola bars he had snitched from the kitchen. Diana took one from Caine- for whatever reason the Diana/Drake hatred was worse than ever.

"They've got all the freaks on their side 'cept Bug, Andrew, and you two. Good luck getting them back, Caine. They're pissed about what you did to the teachers."

Caine had had a feeling this might be the case. He knew his reign of power was practically over unless…A smile cracked across his face.

"Oh, great," he heard Diana say. "I know that face. He's got a plan." She draped herself across Caine's lap with a dramatic sigh. "O Fearless Leader, please enlighten us with your marvelous plan to get ourselves further screwed!"

Caine pushed her away, rolling his eyes. "Yes. I have a plan," he declared. "We don't need the other freaks. We have a enough people to do bigger, better things."

"Yeah, but we don't want a mob of angry freaks on our tail while we're doing the 'bigger, better' things," Diana said.

"Precisely." Caine stood up, beginning to pace. "And that's why we've go to put them out of commission." He turned. "Drake, you've still got the concrete and the holes, right?"

A grin was spreading across Drake's face. "Yeah."

"Good." Caine shared his manic smile. "Then I believe it's time for a little plastering."

0000000000

Brianna was feeling pretty good about herself.

Sure, she had liked Caine in the past but now that she knew about the plastering of the teachers that had supposedly coordinated by Caine, Drake, and Diana, she had second thoughts. No one who would do something like that was good. Brianna knew that much. So she was proud of herself, proud that she had enough gumption to stand up to her 'superiors'.

Now her, Dekka, and Taylor were the leaders and they ruled fairly. Caine could, in her humble opinion, go to hell.

She was currently in the cafeteria, eating dinner, which consisted of frozen spaghetti some one had warmed up from the back kitchen. A pretty large crowd had turned out. Most of them were the freaks from Caine's old group. The Freak Society, they called themselves, an inside joke.

Suddenly, the double doors to the cafeteria burst open, with Frederico and Benno coming in with guns. Brianna didn't doubt they had gotten the guns from Drake.

"Everyone put your hands up!" Benno shouted, swinging the gun around wildly. "Anyone does anything else and I shoot!"

A hush fell over the cafeteria. Brianna didn't doubt for a moment that they were completely serious.

She felt her blood boil as she saw Caine enter the room. She hated him.

"Just remember," he said, "you asked for this. You're the ones who hate me; well, hatred goes both ways."

Brianna saw Dekka squint and realized she was planning something. With a tiny laugh that she quickly suppressed, she realized they all had their hands in the air. Their hands, though, were the source of their power!

There was a rumbling and then Caine was floating in the air, the gravity on his feet no longer there. Brianna felt a smile spread across her face until she saw the cold, deadness that had entered Caine's eyes. He pushed both palms forward and Dekka was thrown backwards into a wall, her power losing its grip on Caine as she crumpled to the floor.

Caine got up slowly and Brianna felt fear once again in her heart.

"There will be," he was saying, "no more use of powers here. If someone else decides to play hero, this will happen." He snapped his fingers at Benno and the boy pulled the trigger on the gun. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Brianna screamed but it was too late. A girl, Lori, her name was, crumpled to the ground.

She was dead. Caine had killed her.

"Yes," Caine said, his eyes finding hers. "I am _very _serious about power. _No one _challenges me, Brianna."

She felt an invisible hand wrap around her and suddenly she was being dragged against her will towards Caine. She struggled but knew deep down it was pointless. Caine was just too powerful.

He threw her to the ground at his feet and held her still with power. She was scared. She was so scared.

Caine looked out to the silent crowd. "Now, Brianna is going to show you what you all are going to do. If anyone puts up a struggle…" His eyes strayed to Benno and Brianna wanted to punch him. "Benno's trigger finger might twitch again."

She saw Frederico come over in front of her with the gun. With the flick of his hands, Caine made her hold out her arms, palms up to the sky like she was praying.

"Just standard procedure, I promise," Caine said, a cruel smile on his face.

There was a BANG and Brianna screamed as her hand exploded. They had shot her right through the palm. A red haze filled her vision and she was vaguely aware of another bang, another scream. Her own. They had shot her other hand too. God, the pain.

"Just insurance against powers," Caine was saying, but Brianna could barely hear him. All she hoped for now was unconsciousness. Anything to escape from the pain. It didn't come thought, not yet.

She felt someone lift her, showing her to the crowd in the room. She slumped towards the ground, not able to see anything but red.

"Come now, Brianna." Caine's voice rattled around in her mind. "I hear Drake's developed a wonderful spa treatment for the hands."

Then, finally, the darkness took her.

**Okay, so here is the LAST AUTHOR'S NOTE. ****Crazy story, but I started writing this in 2011. THAT'S THREE YEARS, PEOPLE. I have been overwhelmed from the very beginning with the support this story has gotten. This was my very first fanfiction and I wasn't honestly expecting it to do this well. From the beginning this has just been my release, never really my best writing, just something fun to do. **

**I've grown so much as a writer over the course of this, which is why I've decided not to edit this story. I'm just going to leave it as it is. The reason is because I want people to look back as writers and just see what a journey you can make by practicing your writing. I've also learned just general stuff about posting a fanfiction, about how it's impossible to make deadlines sometimes and how you really don't need paragraphs worth of A/N (something I'm bad at :P )**

**So at the end, I just want to thank you if you are reading this. Yeah, I get it, sometimes you're too lazy to review, but honestly just the thought that someone is out there reading this and laughing and crying along with the characters make me smile. If you have stuck with me from my 7th grade writing in chapter 1, then I thank you.**

**I have many fics planned in the future, but for a short time I will be saying sayonara. It's kind of strange, honestly, because I have literally had this going on for so long. **

**So, yeah, thanks. And if you're out there writing something and you want help, don't hesitate to ask, my doors are always open. God knows they were open for me when I first came here.**

**THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU, and, as we like to say here: dftba ;)**


	26. Chapter 26

The freaks in plaster were crying for food but Diana had long since learned how to ignore them. She strode across the Coates grounds in her freshly washed uniform, washed for the sole reason that Caine wanted them to all look presentable. She paused by the line of SUV's and watched as Caine conducted the final practice session before the remaining not-in-plaster students made their way to Perdido Beach.

Perdido- the final frontier. The place where Caine claimed he would regain all his glory and power.

Diana smiled. He was such a nitwit sometimes.

Everyone started loading into the cars and Diana stepped closer to the car she, Caine, and Drake would be riding in.

"Looks like everything's gonna go off without a hitch, huh?"

He turned, flicking his dark hair off his face. Eyes wild with anticipation and excitement, he breathed, "Yeah. Yeah, it looks like it will."

A particularly loud wail sounded from inside the building. Both heads snapped towards the noise and Diana bit her lip.

"You sure Frederico and all them have got the freaks under control?"

Caine gave her a knowing look. "Would I be leaving them if I thought they were a threat?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I usually am."

The sun passed overhead, glaring in their eyes. Diana felt a familiar wave of nausea and dizziness sweep through her and she grabbed Caine's arm for support. The concussion she had graciously received from her attacker the morning when the dome had sprung up was still rearing its nasty head.

She felt Caine's eyes on her worriedly and he opened the door to their car, sitting her down as he peered at her head. "You alright?"

"Yeah," she said, her voice breathier than she had meant because of their proximity. "Yeah, I'm good, just dizzy."

"Well, be careful, okay?" he asked, not looking convinced. "I need you for when we claim Perdido."

She smiled and watched as he went around to the passengers seat, slamming the door behind him. Drake slid in beside her, his eyes also beginning to glow with excitement.

Caine took a walkie-talkie out of the console, pressed the button and said, "Alright, we're off my friends! Time to take Perdido!"

The motorcade pulled out of the lot slowly, the drivers still fairly terrified of the road. Diana watched as Coates faded behind her, listened as Caine went over the plan for the millionth time with Drake.

When they got near Perdido, Caine reached back and gripped his sweaty, nervous palm to hers. She rolled her eyes at him as he winked, but otherwise complied.

She would never tell him how her heart jumped when he touched her. Or how she got goosebumps when he looked at her like she was a tall glass of water and he was a man trapped in the desert. Or the way he flicked his hair out of his eyes or chewed savagely on his thumbnail. Nah, he didn't need to know those things.

After all- that was just unnecessary information.


End file.
